Because the disaster dealing with Nice Salt Lake continues to garner ongoing native and nationwide consideration and concern, National Audubon Society welcomes the rising array of dedicated organizations and leaders advancing efforts to protect Nice Salt Lake by way of their management and monetary assist. As individuals in at present’s roundtable hosted by Governor Spencer Cox, Audubon strongly helps federal investments to leverage the State of Utah’s ongoing investments and personal sector contributions to a more healthy Nice Salt Lake. For greater than three a long time, Audubon has been a recognized leader committed to the long-term conservation and restoration of Great Salt Lake and its linked wetlands.
“We’re grateful for the management of Utah’s congressional delegation, Governor Cox and different federal and state leaders in recognizing the significance of sustained federal funding as a key step towards assembly the dimensions of the challenges dealing with Nice Salt Lake,” mentioned Marshall Johnson, Chief Conservation Officer on the Nationwide Audubon Society. “Constructing on a long time of our conservation work at Nice Salt Lake, Audubon is able to assist flip that dedication into lasting progress by bringing science, partnerships, and on-the-ground expertise to the work forward.”
As the most important saline lake within the Western Hemisphere, Nice Salt Lake is a globally essential stopover, internet hosting 12 million migratory birds yearly—birds that rely upon the lake and its wetlands for breeding and fueling habitat. This consists of among the largest congregations of species discovered anyplace on the earth, just like the Eared Grebe and Wilson’s Phalarope. Defending the lake is important not just for migratory birds and wildlife on the hemispheric scale, but additionally for regional air high quality, financial stability, public well being, and the well-being of hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Via science-based conservation, coverage management, and collaborative partnerships, Audubon is advancing durable, watershed-scale solutions that enhance water safety, defend habitat, and strengthen the resilience of the lake and its wetlands. Working alongside federal, state, Tribal, native, agricultural, and neighborhood companions, we are implementing progressive and sensible options that assist stabilize and get well the Nice Salt Lake ecosystem. Audubon and The Nature Conservancy lead the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust (the Belief), that has helped to secure new and existing water flows to Great Salt Lake by way of voluntary water transactions that profit the lake and surrounding communities. The Belief has turn out to be a number one mannequin for collaborative water stewardship and supporting restoration of the lake’s habitats.
To construct on this progress and meet the dimensions of the challenges dealing with the lake, Audubon strongly helps the request for $1 billion in federal funding devoted to the safety and restoration of Nice Salt Lake and its watershed. As mentioned at at present’s roundtable, this stage of funding would assist speed up conservation methods to convey extra water to the lake together with voluntary water transactions, pure infrastructure, habitat restoration, species and wetland safety, scientific monitoring, and community-based partnerships which might be vital to securing the way forward for the lake, and integral to Audubon’s work at Nice Salt Lake.
Defending Nice Salt Lake isn’t solely a regional precedence, it’s a hemispheric crucial. Daring federal motion now may help safe a sustainable future for this irreplaceable ecosystem, particularly as we rally across the purpose of securing a wholesome Nice Salt Lake by the 2034 Winter Olympics.
