This weblog was initially posted on the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust website on October 5, 2026. The Belief is co-managed by Nationwide Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy.
Regardless of the challenges Nice Salt Lake is dealing with this 12 months, intensified by Utah’s lowest snowpack on report and scorching summer time temperatures, the lake has not dropped to its historic low level of 2022. This is because of a number of components, together with:
- the state of Utah’s efforts to handle salinity within the lake’s South Arm, to guard brine shrimp, brine flies and the birds that rely on these meals sources
- lowered water extractions by mineral corporations
- regular progress in tackling and eradicating invasive phragmites
- ongoing wetland and habitat restoration.
Water deliveries to the lake have additionally continued over the summer time. The water, partly, could be attributed to the historic and ongoing water conservation efforts going down throughout the Nice Salt Lake Basin, paired with partnerships like these fostered by the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust (Belief) and its many companions.
Most significantly, in durations of drought like we’re experiencing now, our capacity to preserve water, each within the city setting and in agriculture, is important to creating the distinction for Nice Salt Lake.
For instance, water leases like the Trust’s partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake & Sandy, which is sending an annual common of two,500 acre-feet of water to the lake over the subsequent ten years, present the influence that collective particular person actions can obtain at scale, after we actively preserve water. This lease association, led by the Belief together with key companions, is sending water to Nice Salt Lake that might not in any other case naturally attain the system, and the water is primarily obtainable because of the conservation efforts of Salt Lake Metropolis and Sandy Metropolis’s residents and companies. And this lease is only one of many one-time and recurring alternatives the Belief has secured.
Nationwide Audubon Society (Audubon) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), as co-managers of the Belief, spent the final 4 years constructing a voluntary leasing program that’s each artistic and versatile in nature to make sure the Belief’s capacity to safe water for Nice Salt Lake, no matter present local weather circumstances. Within the ongoing period of “record-breaking” and “historic” headlines, this flexibility is a requirement.
The pliability within the Belief’s agreements with water proper holders can take many varieties, resembling leasing a variable quantity of water from 12 months to 12 months relying on availability or delivering water at totally different occasions of the 12 months.
Due to state and personal investments within the Belief’s mission, mixed with our companions’ willingness to lean into preparations to assist protect Nice Salt Lake, the Belief anticipates matching water transacted in 2025 by the top of 2026 , regardless of much less water being within the system this 12 months.
Since its inception, the Belief has developed a robust community of companions throughout the watershed who’re devoted to making sure Nice Salt Lake’s future. The Belief works day by day with state companions just like the Nice Salt Lake Commissioner’s Workplace and the Utah Divisions of Forestry, Fireplace and State Lands and Wildlife Assets to coordinate and ship water for the advantage of Nice Salt Lake. Within the Jordan River system, the Belief depends upon foundational companions just like the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, Rio Tinto Kennecott, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to ship water to Nice Salt Lake’s Farmington and Gilbert Bays. And with the Belief’s proof of idea in water leasing, extra companions, and a better range of companions within the Weber River and Bear River methods, together with Weber Basin Water Conservancy District and Huntsville Abbey Farm, are serving to to ship water to key habitat areas in Ogden Bay and Willard Spur.
Whereas we glance hopefully towards a robust snowpack this winter, bolstering established applications and efforts constructed round flexibility, partnership, and innovation will proceed to make sure probably the most resilient outcomes in Utah’s shared purpose of securing a wholesome future for Nice Salt Lake. Audubon and TNC sit up for rising the Belief’s voluntary leasing program and enhancing its efforts via conservation and partnership.
