If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend spending a couple of hours exploring the Great Salt Lake.
Last week, we ventured out in an airboat right after a rainstorm, feeling the crisp, cool air even as dark clouds threatened to split wide open again. The deluge delayed our launch for about an hour, but we were grateful for the moisture since, as we all know, the lake is alarmingly low this year.
Even so, life on the lake is abundant.
Once on the boat, we navigated narrow waterways through the wetlands, with several peregrine falcons serving as a welcoming committee. When we finally reached a clearing, hundreds of avocets sensed our advance and dramatically took flight en masse, fanning out over the bay.
Chris, our guide from The Nature Conservancy, pointed out graceful white-faced ibises, long-billed dowitchers, snowy egrets, great blue herons and American white pelicans in clusters searching for food. We even saw what looked like a coyote in the distance.
I can tell you, the lake is teeming with life and it’s exhilarating to see it up close and personal. But looks can be deceiving. Despite the healthy-looking masses of birds and wildlife we saw, Chris, who’s worked on the lake for two decades, noted changes in migratory patterns, and it was impossible to ignore how shallow the channels have become.
It’s clear the lake needs our help.
We all know the lake is approaching historically low levels, endangering the creatures — and people — who rely on this fragile ecosystem. The wetlands upon which millions of migratory birds depend are threatened. According to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, the dry exposed lakebed is releasing toxic chemicals into the air that we all breathe on windy days.
Fortunately, this problem is something we can solve — if we work together.
We can all conserve more water.
We can follow the plan that our state’s water experts and our Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed have recommended.
And we can all learn more about the lake to fully appreciate its beauty and its impact on our lives, our environment, our economy, our water and our snowpack.
To that end, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation has funded a film called “Secrets of the Great Salt Lake.” This documentary produced by the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation will be shown in a state-of-the-art IMAX theater in the new Antelope Island State Park Visitors Center when it opens next spring. Thousands of visitors will see the lake as it’s never been seen before.
I’m most excited about the educational aspects of this project. We’ve partnered with the Flippen Group — the largest provider of K-12 education materials in America — to develop school curriculum around the film.
Every 4th and 7th grader in classrooms throughout the state will learn about this dynamic natural resource, why it matters to us all and what we can do to protect it.
The poet William Butler Yeats once wrote, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
I wish schooling alone would fill the Great Salt Lake, but the change can start with education.
Whether that comes through a film, a book or a field trip, it’s time we all learn more about the Great Salt Lake and the actions each of us can take to preserve this incredible, irreplaceable part of our home.