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Habitat Restoration and Protection

Utah’s Great Salt Lake and its Ecosystem

One of Western Resource Advocates’ core priorities is the protection and restoration of Utah’s Great Salt Lake ecosystem. Great Salt Lake is of enormous national and international value, as it provides irreplaceable habitat for several million resident and migratory water birds, as is a major recreational attraction. However, the Lake’s ecosystems are threatened both by new diversions from the freshwater streams that sustain it and from pollution being dumped directly into the Lake. WRA’s Utah staff works in close collaboration with groups such as Friends of Great Salt Lake, the Utah Wetlands Foundation, Great Salt Lake Audubon, National Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, and others to minimize these harmful activities and to develop comprehensive strategies that will protect this remarkable natural legacy.

WRA helps to avoid litigation by helping the conservation community to engage in the many processes that can lead to resource protection. We strengthen opportunities to build awareness within the agencies making decisions about the Great Salt Lake watershed, and are instrumental in proposing preemptive measures to the conservation community that help avoid escalating conflict. However, when litigation becomes necessary, we are there to get it done.

As part of our work to protect the greater Great Salt Lake ecosystem, we challenged an application that would withdraw an additional 140,000 acre feet of water from the already over-appropriated watershed. The Utah State Engineer rejected the application in part because it would adversely affect the environment and recreation -- and was contrary to the public interest. The applicant appealed, WRA intervened, and the State Engineer’s wise decision was upheld by the court. The applicant has appealed again, and we are now briefing and arguing this case before the Utah Supreme Court.

WRA intervened on behalf of a coalition of conservation groups in a case resolving disputes between the State of Utah and private landowners over ownership of lands around Utah Lake. The land at issue makes up some of Utah’s most important fresh water wetlands. Allied with the State, we have helped advance the protection of much of this area.