Many groups are trying to save the Great Salt Lake. Here's how they can better collaborate

Editor's note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative with funding from Love the Lake, an initiative of the nonprofit Great Salt Lake Alliance. Editorial decisions are made independently by the Collaborative and partner newsrooms.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Great Salt Lake continues to slide closer to its lowest point on record, but a new Utah report underscores potential ways to refine solution processes that could help the state avoid environmental impacts of its decline.

The Great Salt Lake Alliance and the Great Salt Lake Commissioner's Office jointly released a report on Wednesday that outlines dozens of ways Utah can improve its ongoing efforts for the lake. It compiles ideas gathered during a summer brainstorming session that brought representatives from nearly 50 organizations together to discuss the situation.

What all of the groups agree on is that there needs to be better coordination and expanded access to information and data when it comes to handling the lake. They also believed that strengthening the capacity of project implementation, continuing to test new solutions and building greater collaboration and public understanding can help.

That could change how solutions are pitched. The report outlined three future steps, calling for more "solutions-focused" educational opportunities, as well as improving access to information that supports decisions and incorporating key findings into ongoing state planning. Parts of it could be implemented into the commissioner's strategic plans.

"These insights provide another valuable source of stakeholder input as we continue updating the Great Salt Lake Strategic Plan and advancing long-term planning for the basin," said Hannah Freeze, Utah's Great Salt Lake commissioner.

The Great Salt Lake's southern arm has fallen to 4,189.7 feet elevation, while its northern arm is now down to 4,189.6 feet elevation, as of Wednesday, following its annual summer decline. That's over 8 feet below its minimum healthy level and only a little more than a foot above its lowest point on record, which was set in 2022.

It will begin to regain water soon, as the irrigation season comes to a close, but it's unlikely to reach that healthy marker anytime soon unless there's a drastic shift in water making it to the lake.

Experts point to overconsumption of water that would otherwise make it to the lake and long-standing drought as key factors for its decline.

Leaders of the Great Salt Lake Commissioner's Office and the Great Salt Lake Alliance held their inaugural Great Salt Lake Solutions Exchange in June, which featured nearly a dozen presentations about the work already underway to address the lake's decline and new emerging ideas from different sectors.

Representatives from the government, higher education, nonprofit, agriculture, industry and philanthropy attended, sharing their experiences.

For instance, the agricultural sector shared how a voluntary approach to water leasing can be used to scale up "successful water-leasing programs, crop switching, conservation easements and irrigation improvements" that could help farmers and ranchers send water to the lake if they so choose.

A similar approach could be considered by towns and cities to reduce outdoor watering, as municipal and industrial water use continues to increase within the lake's basin.

But getting water to the lake may also require habitat adjustments. Utah estimates 82,000 acre-feet of water could be saved by removing invasive phragmites and replacing them with native plant species, which could make sure more of the dedicated water makes it to the lake.

It will also likely require infrastructure that helps manage the lake. "Wildcard" ideas were also presented at the summit, including floating solar projects, bringing in water from long distances and opportunities with the Department of Defense through the Sentinel Landscape program.

Attendees left agreeing that it's important to highlight all the existing projects and partnerships, as many experts found they weren't aware of every concept being studied or implemented. They also wanted to see who was working on what and why, which could be used for better collaboration while helping "leverage existing work and accelerate progress," the report noted.

Cutting straight to lessons learned from trying solutions was more helpful than debating concerns about the shrinking lake because "the urgency of the problem is well understood," it added.

Freeze said the event made it easier to hear directly from the people working on lake solutions to understand what is and isn't working as many different sectors seek to tackle the same problem.

Experts could offer similar "lightning talks" to highlight ongoing work to legislators, city leaders or the general public, as that was found to be one of the better ways to convey the information, the report stated. It also suggested better ways to make information available and incorporate new findings into strategic planning to help out the lake.

"Utah already has incredible people and organizations working on Great Salt Lake solutions. Our opportunity is to better connect that work, learn from what is already succeeding and help promising solutions to move forward," said Lindsie Smith, executive director of the Great Salt Lake Alliance.

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