New Policy Tools and Funding Bring Much-Needed Support to Great Salt Lake

Beneath-average runoff and protracted drought are driving water ranges near report lows as soon as once more at Nice Salt Lake. These circumstances function a stark reminder that preserving the lake and its wetlands is a steady endeavor—one that may take collective motion and partnership yearly. Nice Salt Lake supplies irreplaceable habitat and is a key nesting, breeding, and stopover level for some 12 million migratory birds yearly, representing 339 species. Audubon continues to champion options for the lake and to work with decision-makers to help administration instruments and choices that make use of flexibility and adaptableness to altering circumstances, along with much-needed investments within the lake’s well being.  

Recognizing the necessity for continued motion, a number of new instruments and coverage levers are actually being applied.  These latest insurance policies and commitments construct on the solution-oriented applications that Audubon continues to prioritize and are necessary steps ahead as we proceed to face drought and larger strain on Utah’s water methods. Partnership, innovation, and funding will proceed to be crucial instruments we’ve got as we work collectively to get Nice Salt Lake again to wholesome ranges.   

Different statewide highlights embrace: 

Great Salt Lake Distribution Management Plan 
Following laws handed in 2024, the state applied a plan to handle lake mineral extraction that evaporates water to supply mineral salts. This program has a number of elements, together with voluntary agreements with many mineral producers to cut back their water consumption in relation to lake ranges. As part of that very same laws, the Utah Division of Water Rights adopted the Great Salt Lake Distribution Management Plan (Plan) to handle and account for the lake’s water.

Incorporating elements of Utah’s water rights system and the mandate for sovereign lands administration authority, the Plan depends on “rules of prior appropriation and a number of use sustained yield in relation to the cheap preservation or enhancement of the Nice Salt Lake’s pure aquatic setting.”   

The framework of the Plan regulates how water is measured, allotted, and distributed amongst water rights on the lake. This consists of Nice Salt Lake water rights held by corporations for mineral manufacturing from the lake, in addition to ”devoted water,” that are water rights put to helpful use at Nice Salt Lake counting on the instream movement coverage modifications made in 2022. Mineral extraction water rights will likely be managed by precedence, the phrases of voluntary agreements, and in relation to lake ranges. Importantly, devoted water, together with water transacted by the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust, which is co-managed by Audubon and The Nature Conservancy, and its companions is protected against mineral extraction and can stay within the lake yr after yr, topic to reductions for some evaporation. The Plan additionally introduces the “Nice Salt Lake Distribution Accounting Device” that tracks lake elevation, salinity, water rights, devoted water delivered to or held within the lake, and different associated metrics. 

By limiting withdrawals for mineral extraction as lake ranges decline, and by defending water devoted to be used within the lake, the Plan is designed to assist shield ecological well being by preserving salinity stability, wetlands, habitats, chook populations, and lowering uncovered lakebed that contributes to mud air pollution. It additionally supplies a brand new stage of readability and transparency for mineral corporations to allow them to plan their enterprise operations within the face of fluctuating lake ranges.  

2025 – 2035 Utah Wildlife Action Plan Prioritizes and Protects Great Salt Lake  
Utah’s not too long ago adopted 2025-2035 State Wildlife Action Plan—the state’s official information to defending and conserving wildlife and their habitats—incorporates a variety of updates, together with a new focus on saline lakes and species that depend on them. 

The brand new parts that instantly join statewide conservation priorities to the well being of Nice Salt Lake embrace:  

• Nice Salt Lake is now acknowledged as a key aquatic habitat 
• Brine flies, that are a key meals supply for a lot of birds and species of migratory birds, comparable to American Avocet, Wilson’s Phalarope, Snowy Plover, and different species have been added as a species of biggest conservation want 
• Microbialites—the inspiration of microbial mats that help brine fly larvae—are actually included as one in every of 14 terrestrial key habitats 

With the 2025 replace, the state of Utah is taking necessary steps ahead, acknowledging the threats going through Nice Salt Lake and the species that rely upon it and focusing efforts on its conservation and safety. 

Increased Flexibility for Berm Management  
In October, the Utah legislature adopted coverage modifications to supply larger flexibility for state officers to guard the lake’s important South Arm (Gilbert Bay) ecosystem, whereas nonetheless preserving Gunnison Bay—the North Arm of the lake. Now, Utah’s Division of Forestry, Fireplace and State Lands has larger flexibility to handle the causeway berm that separates the North and South Arms of Nice Salt Lake, particularly to regulate how water and salt transfer between the lake’s North and South Arms. 

Managing the movement between these arms is crucial in preserving the lake’s ecosystems wholesome. Adaptable berm administration is very necessary throughout dry years when water ranges are low. With out the flexibility to regulate the berm, elements of the lake may grow to be both too salty or, at instances, not salty sufficient, inflicting ecological hurt—comparable to declines in brine shrimp copy. Low water ranges can expose and dry-out microbialites, that are rock-like formations that present the structural basis for microbe mats. These methods are prevalent alongside the lake’s shallow edges and are important for brine fly copy. Many bird species that rely on the brine flies and brine shrimp or their cysts can grow to be weak with the lack of necessary meals and vitality sources throughout spring and fall migration intervals. With this coverage change, state managers can reply shortly and responsibly to altering lake circumstances, serving to to guard the lake’s delicate stability and keep away from long-term environmental injury. 

Great Salt Lake 2034 Charter and Funding 
Up to now few months, Utah state leaders, together with Governor Cox, Senate President Adams, Home Speaker Schultz, and Congressman Moore joined with enterprise executives, philanthropists, conservation organizations—together with Nationwide Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy—and others to debate the way forward for Nice Salt Lake and its wetlands and pledge to revive and shield the lake for generations to come back via the Nice Salt Lake 2034 Constitution.

The signing of the Nice Salt Lake 2034 Constitution marks a major public dedication to guard the lake and its wetlands and requires Utahns to hitch the rally to revive the lake’s well being by 2034, defending it for generations to come back.  

Funders pledged a $200 million dedication to help long-term, solution-driven efforts for Nice Salt Lake.  

 Such commitments, mixed with $53 million in open funding alternatives—$50 million from the Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Water Delivery Program and the remaining $3 million from the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust and the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Land’s Wetland Protection and Restoration Program—present a wanted enhance for numerous tasks and options within the Nice Salt Lake basin.  

The numerous stage of dedication from a variety of partnerships serves as one other step ahead towards addressing the urgency of the challenges going through Nice Salt Lake.