Provo City Power employees install a nesting platform for osprey at the Powell Slough Waterfowl Management Area near Utah Lake in Orem on Tuesday. Ospreys — sometimes called fish hawks or sea hawks — are birds of prey that primarily eat fish, which is why they are drawn to large bodies of water like Utah Lake. Ospreys build large nests and often have a hard time finding suitable trees. Because of this, several nesting platforms have been installed near Utah Lake for the osprey to use. However, the current site of the nesting platforms is where the Provo River Delta Restoration Project will be implemented in March 2020 to facilitate the recovery of the June sucker, a fish species only found at Utah Lake that’s currently listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Since the osprey have migrated south for the winter, the nesting platforms will be relocated and installed on other public lands near Utah Lake.
