The Great Salt Lake’s Window of Opportunity

By Nicholas Niendorf, Golden Eagle Guest Blogger

In October 2021, the Great Salt Lake hit its lowest-ever recorded water level, beating a record that’d stood since 1963.

And then it set another record low in July 2022.

Severe drought, water diversion, and resource overuse in an increasingly hostile climate brought the lake to the verge of collapse. This led to unprecedented awareness and fear about the lake’s future.

But then Utah had its highest-ever recorded snowpack, pushing lake water and salinity levels to a much healthier level. Few had anticipated such a wet winter. Even fewer anticipated that the winter of 23/24 would also bring above-average snowpack, further bolstering lake health.

Thanks to that influx of water, the lake’s brine fly and brine shrimp population, both keystone species in the Salt Lake ecosystem, are on the upswing.

“I think of it as this miraculous window of opportunity we have to see the progress that's been made on the policy front, to see if that translates into greater inflows,” Katie Newburn, education and outreach director at FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake, said.

FRIENDS is a nonprofit in Salt Lake City working to preserve the Salt Lake’s ecosystem through  education, research, and advocacy.

Golden Eagle Audubon Program on June 11

Newburn will be giving a free talk on Zoom about the Great Salt Lake and ongoing conservation efforts on Tuesday, June 11th at 7 p.m. (register here).

Katie Newburn and student

Great Salt Lake photo courtesy of Friends of Great Salt Lake

Window of Opportunity

Window of opportunity is the key phrase here. Keep in mind that it took an unprecedented two years of snowpack to get the lake back to this level. If the policy changes Newburn alluded to don’t continue, a few seasons of drought and human overuse could slam that window shut.

And that would be disastrous for the many, many birds that rely on the lake.

“Just to put in perspective the Great Salt Lake’s significance: it hosts up to 12 million birds from over 300 different species each year.” Newburn said. “That is an immense quantity and variety of birds, most of which are migratory, who depend on having viable habitat at this destination along their migratory path.”

John Luft, the Great Salt Lake ecosystem program manager at the Utah Department of Natural Resources, emphasized the importance of maintaining a dependable stopover site for the grueling migration those 12 million birds make each year.

Black-neck Stilt by Ken Miracle

Adapt, Move or Die

“There are other examples of declining saline lake levels around the world, so we need to pay attention to history, or we are doomed to repeat it,” Luft said. “Just the geographic location of [Great Salt Lake] makes it more important, because it is located in a desert where water bodies and refueling stops for birds are few and far between.”

Newburn cited a common ecological refrain when asked what will happen to migratory birds if the lake’s health deteriorates: “adapt, move, or die.”

“Maybe they can adapt and find other sources of food if there are no longer brine shrimp and brine flies supported by Great Salt Lake. Maybe they can move and go to Mono Lake [in California], the Pacific Coast, or other similar habitats that can support their needs.

“But inevitably, that volume of birds who come to Great Salt Lake to nest, rest, and feed every year, some of them will die. They'll be impacted, and that impacts the future of that population in its annual cycles,” Newburn explained.

Shrinking water levels means an increase in concentration of salinity in the water. Past a certain point, microbial life, brine shrimp, and brine fly health all begin to decline precipitously.

Eared Grebes by Ken Miracle

While all the lake’s migratory birds stand to suffer from a decline, it will spell disaster for species like the Eared Grebe. Eared Grebes aren’t currently a threatened species, but up to 90% of North America’s population stops at the Great Salt Lake. A fall off in the lake’s brine shrimp could dramatically swing the health of the population for the worse.

That’s why this window the last two winters created is so significant. After an all-time record low in lake health, when the region’s lawmakers were more invested in lake conservation than ever, the snowpack created an opportunity to push through and observe the effects of tangible changes.

Unparalleled Concern For Declining Lake

“I think we've made some really amazing meaningful progress to reform structural water policy that has been a huge barrier in getting water to the lake for more than a century, since statehood,” Newburn said. “Those types of programs that are trying to give agricultural water rights holders or water users tools to use less water. To change the nature of their water rights to remain instream rather than being diverted, be compensated for that, and let their water flow to the lake.

“That's a program that was launched in 2022 and funded in earnest. And so those types of big shifts, it’s like turning a big ship: it takes time to see those reforms translate into inflows. That's what we're all impatiently waiting for, to get water to the lake.”

Those big shifts are part of gradual change in the public’s perception of the lake, a change that’s grown rapidly in recent years as the declining health of the lake garners more and more concern.

“All of the attention that the lake has garnered in the last decade, which has been amplified in the most recent five years, provides an even more positive trend moving forward,” Luft said. “You have new bills, new laws, new policies, and multiple groups working on solutions not only at the lake and all of its tributaries, but also in the entire basin. An unprecedented amount of work in terms of research, management, and conservation is being done now.”

People in the area have understood the lake’s significance since time immemorial, but the recent swell of legislation and interest is unparalleled. It’s the culmination of decades of organization and education, resulting in more people than ever reckoning with the state of the lake.

Red-necked Phalaropes on Great Salt Lake by Mia McPherson, On the Wing Photography

Perseverance and Sacrifice

“We hear a lot of blame across different types of water users,” Newburn said. “We all are pointing fingers at each other, and I like to say, ‘When you point your finger at somebody else, they're pointing back at you,’ right? We're all to blame, and we all have the power to be part of the solution.”

Trust and cooperation have been, and will continue to be, essential in keeping the lake healthy. There isn’t one fix-all, and the sheer volume of water needed is daunting. From the state and federal government, to the agricultural and mining industries, to the residents of the area themselves, the need for collaboration now is undeniable, and will only continue to grow.

Katie Newburn at the Great Salt Lake

“Be prepared to persevere and to continue making sacrifices where we can on behalf of the lake,” Newburn said. “That is the big cultural shift that is necessary, and that I think is ongoing, that we'll need to continue to move forward in achieving long-term restoration.”

Newburn will be giving a free talk on Zoom about the Great Salt Lake and ongoing conservation efforts on Tuesday, June 11th at 7 p.m. (register here).