Half of the Great Salt Lake in Utah has now dried up, but scientists say there's still some time left to reverse its decline.
Scientists Carly Biedul , Bonnie Baxter and Heidi Hoven look for migratory birds on the eerily dry south shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
“It’s quite an adventure to get out here,” says Carly Biedul, a wildlife biologist at nearby Westminster University. She’s part of a team of scientists who have been tracking the lake’s decline amid the West’s record megadrought made worse by climate change. They’ve been conducting weekly trips to various sampling and study sites for the last several years at the remote lake that only recently started making international headlines due to its sharp decline.
Water diversions by farmers and Utah’s booming population are seen as some of the biggest culprits behind the Great Salt Lake’s decline. 2023 brought record snow to Utah, and a healthy spillover of runoff into the imperiled lake. Scientists warn the lake has already shrunk nearly in half from its historical average.
“You can actually see it over your shoulder,” she gestures. “It’s this advancement of large, distribution warehouses that are within a mile from the sanctuary now where it used to be open land.” It’s beautiful but also eerie, even for the trained eye of wildlife biologists like Biedul, who make weekly research trips to the lake.
Everything from lake effect snow for the lucrative ski industry, to mining, to air quality depends on the lake’s survival. Recent publicity around the crisis has raised public awareness but also started to bring more money which could lead to more comprehensive research that could inform everything from strategic action plans to save the lake to just understanding how the remaining migratory birds are coping.“We have so much more to understand about what their needs are,” she says.
SIEGLER: Hoven and her team are tracking a sharp decline, particularly in burrowing owls and snowy plovers, white-breasted with their tiny black beaks.SIEGLER: There are plenty of culprits behind the lake drying up. Farmers are diverting a lot of water upstream from here that used to flow into it. Utah’s population is also booming, and that development is running right up to us.
BONNIE BAXTER: You know, I think we’ve bought ourselves a couple of years, and that’s great. But you look at this dry lake bed in front of you, and you can see, even after all of that snow from last year and a decent year this year, we’re still struggling.
NPR News Carly Biedul Great Salt Lake Great Salt Lake Institute Heidi Hoven
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Great Salt Lake rescue plans begin to roll outBen Winslow is a reporter with FOX 13 covering a variety of topics including politics, polygamy, vice and courts.
Read more »
Navigating partisan waters: A Utah Republican and California Democrat visit the Great Salt LakeBobbing up and down on the otherworldly surface of the Great Salt Lake, two lawmakers from opposing political planets found themselves in frequent agreement.
Read more »
Cox holds event for Great Salt Lake, water conservation billsBen Winslow is a reporter with FOX 13 covering a variety of topics including politics, polygamy, vice and courts.
Read more »
Opinion: One little bird’s fate is intimately tied to the future of Great Salt Lake“This little bird’s fate is intimately tied to the future of the lake. And so is ours.”
Read more »
Environmental group seeks protection for this Great Salt Lake shorebird speciesA new legal petition seeking to provide new protections for a shorebird species that relies heavily on the Great Salt Lake to survive could change how the lake is managed.
Read more »
Opinion: We’re making progress, but we must move fast to save the Great Salt LakeAs a child, I remember driving across the causeway to Antelope Island and gazing at the endless water extending forever in both directions. I’m now an environmental science major at Brigham Young University, and I frequently hear about the ailing health of the Great Salt Lake.
Read more »