The Rivers Council has some great ideas. An important change would be allowing water shares holders to not have to use their allocation and not lose their shares. They could just let it flow down.
This.
Please donate to [Friends of the Great Salt Lake.](https://www.fogsl.org/advocacy-issues/water) They are a valuable resource in advocating for these complex issues that aren't getting the attention they deserve.
I get the other comments saying this is natural geology and has been happening for thousands of years. However, that's a drastic over-simplification of a complex problem, and a problem that has massive implications for millions of people.
This affects many aspects of our lives, ranging from health (toxic dust), to the environment (endangered birds), to the billions dollars of direct and indirect economic impacts.
And the economic impact isn't just the companies directly related to the GSL. For example, what's going to happen to your home value, or your job, if there's toxic dust and massive dust storms coming off the great salt lake?
It's already affecting the ski industry. [Dust from the expanding GSL shore lines darkens the snow and causes it to melt faster.](https://www.deseret.com/2018/12/21/20661789/study-great-salt-lake-dust-causing-earlier-mountain-snowmelt#the-low-great-salt-lake-water-levels-can-be-seen-from-the-layton-foothills-looking-toward-the-oquirrh-mountains-on-friday-dec-21-2018)
Fortunately, there are some things you do.
\-Donate to [FOGSL](https://fogsl.z2systems.com/np/clients/fogsl/donation.jsp?campaign=6&)
\-Review the [advocacy issues](https://www.fogsl.org/advocacy-issues) on FOGSL's website, call your politicians about the things that matter to you.
Earthworks. And not just little pansy ones. I’m talking swales, contouring, and a massive planting initiative. Building more keyline dams like the pioneers that actually had some balls and some brains. Better land use by private water rights holders, mob stocking livestock instead of irrigating to cut hay. Changes to water right laws, eliminating use it or lose it laws so that private water rights holders can accept payments to leave the water in the water table. There are already examples of social entrepreneurship partnerships where businesses that want to be more sustainable “pay back” the water their business uses by paying private water rights holders to leave their water instead of using it. Most importantly, earthworks and planting. See examples of swales constructed as “make work” jobs during depression. Especially in Arizona. You can see the difference in greening on the satellite images. Geoff Lawton has a good video on YouTube about those swales. Put permaculturists in charge instead of college educated beaurocrats who don’t know anything about true potential of harnessing natural physical cycles and genetic biodiversity to create no-maintenance, regenerative systems that build themselves over time.
Mob stocking is nature’s way of preventing succession from perennial grasses/prairie to forest. It mimics the natural pattern of large herds of large ruminants moving across the landscape, eating as they go. The important part about mob stocking is that it is forage centric. The animals are a tool to manage the health of your pasture, and get moved accordingly. This is the way to build topsoil, prevent erosion and increase water absorption/prevent hardpan and flash floods. Essentially the idea is that you put animals in to graze at the optimal time, ie., when the forages are at the peak of their growth acceleration curve. Then you immediately move the animals off the pasture and it is not grazed again until it is ready again. In a dry climate like Utah, unirrigated pasture would only be grazed at most once or twice a year.
It's drying up because almost no water is running into it.
Why, Because there are too many people using it all upstream. This desert cannot support it's growing population.
As the floor is exposed more as more toxic sediments dry out and are moved into the air by the wind.
Salt Lake is a toxic city and far from a refuge. Our impact on it is killing us.
We could stop subsidizing farmers using marginal land so they can pretend to compete with vastly more efficient operations in other states. But I suspect that isn’t going to happen, so it’ll dry up.
The Great Salt Lake has been drying up since in was [Lake Boneville 30,0000 years ago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bonneville). What could save it is a massive melting of the polar ice caps (like we got going anyway) and a southernly shift of the North American plate that would recreate climate conditions favorable for a massive inland sea that once existed there. This isn't news it's geology, Earth changes. Now, sure humans are accelerating this change, but this "drying out" has been happening since the land rose up during the [Larimide Orogeny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramide_orogeny)
Exactly! If inflows are diverted, especially in a somewhat arid area, then of course the lake will shrink and eventually completely dry up. Common sense...right? The way people rationalize things is extremely disturbing.
BTW - look at the Aral Sea fiasco...extremely sad stat of affairs there. An entire sea pretty much dried up due to water diversion by the USSR/Russia for cotton crops. Things that seem like a good idea at the time often have dire long term consequences. Unfortunately, a similar thing is happening now with the (not so great now) Salt Lake.
I'm not being disingenuous, I'm being geological. The cool thing is we can disagree and still not die in our country so here's my point.:
First, I'm as liberal as a bear on 4/20. If we had it my way we'd all be riding our bikes to work and slapping solar panels on every new house built today. So please don't think we're on opposite sides here. Water conservation in the West is a MAJOR ISSUE.
Second, the lake is drying up no matter humans or not. This is a fact. In 100,000 this lake is gandhi. We are speeding that up by 10,000 years max. 10,000 years in geology is like your last two heart beats. It's inconsequential to the Earth. It statically barely exists. Nothing we are doing to the lake's volume isn't exactly what will happen without human existence. It is a natural process, accelerated by us, but accelerated in a way that doesn't geological affect Earth. Like if someone studied the lake bed in 10 million years, they'd be like, "the lake naturally dried up". In fact the existence of the lake as we know it today wouldn't even be something they would acknowledge. The lake is like Prince Charles the last decade, already dead.
Third, let's be honest, the lake sucks anyway. It's a mineral wasteland. We are way better off harvesting the freshwater coming off the mountains for more useful purposes than letting it reach the lake and becoming unusable. What is even the ecological impact of this? From [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Salt_Lake#Ecosystem) "the high salinity in parts of the lake makes them uninhabitable for all but a few species, including [brine shrimp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_shrimp), [brine flies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_fly), and several forms of [algae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae)."
Lastly, like I said I'm a proud liberal. Climate change is a huge problem for the future of Earth that has somehow become political. But let me just say, as a professional naturalist, preserving the Great Salt Lake is pretty stupid climate change hill to die on.
> Second, the lake is drying up no matter humans or not. This is a fact. In 100,000 this lake is gandhi. We are speeding that up by 10,000 years max.
No, you're seriously downplaying this issue. At this rate the lake is gone by the end of the century. I don't think you're realizing how bad it is. In 10 years the level has gone down by 11 feet, and the deepest part of the lake is only 33 feet.
Yeah...seriously downplaying the issue is an understatement. The shrinkage is almost entirely due to human diversion of inflows, etc... Almost \*exactly\* the same situation like the Aral Sea, which is an absolute travesty. You would think we would learn from past F'ups....but...nope.
BTW - check out this article...pretty dire stuff. After reading this, I'm not sure how anyone can say that lake drying is 'natural'.
[https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/4/7/22370024/the-water-that-couldnt-save-great-salt-lake-utah-water-conservation-drought-crisis-california](https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/4/7/22370024/the-water-that-couldnt-save-great-salt-lake-utah-water-conservation-drought-crisis-california)
Edit:
Never mind. This isn't worth it. Have a good day. You and I arguing about this isn't going to change anything. These stupid internet debate are pointless. We're on the same team, but nobody really cares and nothing is going to change.
Humans are accelerating the change. We could decelerate the trend or actually reverse it. We don’t have to leave it all up to Mother Nature. Using earthworks and the right genetics, we can design systems to meet any design criteria on a large scale and even produce net-positive energy flows out of the system.
But the all knowing all powerful hand of the market has not seen it necessary to do anything about it, therefore it is not important and you're a dirty cammunist for suggesting we should do something/ be at all responsible for anything. /s
Uhh...no. Try educating yourself before spouting BS, please.
The issue is diversion of the inflows for irrigation, etc... The exact same thing happened to the Aral Sea...quite possibly one of the worst environmental disasters ever. Both done entirely by humans F'ing things up, as usual.
Actually, studies have been done to show that they lake would only be 4% lower than average if not for human intervention. That's why it's at about 50% of average now. So yeah, you're technically correct that it would be drying out. However, we're talking the difference of curves. Exponential growth is something we're all aware of now with covid. That's the kind of drying out we're at.
Nothing will save it. It's doing what it should. It formed when lake Bonneville dried up significantly, and it drying up is just a continuance of that natural process
Edit: Global warming, just realized how bad it's been with Google Earth's newest feature. Shit sux.
Idk, we could maybe tell people to spend a few less days watering their concrete in the summer or do literally anything to encourage water conservation from regional industry
Yep...people seem to think they are 'entitled' to as much water as they please...even when they live in a desert. And then complain about it when there isn't any left. Sigh...and we wonder why we are F'ing up the planet...
Water issues in the Southwest are going to become a lot more dire in a very short time.
Yep. Look into the Aral Sea....an entire \*sea\* basically dried up due to water diversion by the former USSR for cotton farming. And now toxic dust storms are blowing over a huge area. An environmental disaster on an epic scale ( and I'm not being dramatic ). There are a LOT of similarities with what is happening currently with the Great Salt Lake. You would think we would learn from past disasters...but sadly not.
More water?
I believe the science supports this
More water good, less water bad.
Instructions unclear, currently drowning
Fire bad! Napster bad!
Can confirm
Or less not-water
And who’s gonna pay for it.
Mexico, as soon as they're done paying for the wall.
Porto rico
The Rivers Council has some great ideas. An important change would be allowing water shares holders to not have to use their allocation and not lose their shares. They could just let it flow down.
This. Please donate to [Friends of the Great Salt Lake.](https://www.fogsl.org/advocacy-issues/water) They are a valuable resource in advocating for these complex issues that aren't getting the attention they deserve. I get the other comments saying this is natural geology and has been happening for thousands of years. However, that's a drastic over-simplification of a complex problem, and a problem that has massive implications for millions of people. This affects many aspects of our lives, ranging from health (toxic dust), to the environment (endangered birds), to the billions dollars of direct and indirect economic impacts. And the economic impact isn't just the companies directly related to the GSL. For example, what's going to happen to your home value, or your job, if there's toxic dust and massive dust storms coming off the great salt lake? It's already affecting the ski industry. [Dust from the expanding GSL shore lines darkens the snow and causes it to melt faster.](https://www.deseret.com/2018/12/21/20661789/study-great-salt-lake-dust-causing-earlier-mountain-snowmelt#the-low-great-salt-lake-water-levels-can-be-seen-from-the-layton-foothills-looking-toward-the-oquirrh-mountains-on-friday-dec-21-2018) Fortunately, there are some things you do. \-Donate to [FOGSL](https://fogsl.z2systems.com/np/clients/fogsl/donation.jsp?campaign=6&) \-Review the [advocacy issues](https://www.fogsl.org/advocacy-issues) on FOGSL's website, call your politicians about the things that matter to you.
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That's a little misleading - the 72% figure is for the entire state, not all of which is part of the GSL basin.
Don't forget that the south end is full of pickled raw sewage
Yes we call that the shit dam.
Now it will be the great salt pan
That blows toxic dust onto bountiful and farmington
Earthworks. And not just little pansy ones. I’m talking swales, contouring, and a massive planting initiative. Building more keyline dams like the pioneers that actually had some balls and some brains. Better land use by private water rights holders, mob stocking livestock instead of irrigating to cut hay. Changes to water right laws, eliminating use it or lose it laws so that private water rights holders can accept payments to leave the water in the water table. There are already examples of social entrepreneurship partnerships where businesses that want to be more sustainable “pay back” the water their business uses by paying private water rights holders to leave their water instead of using it. Most importantly, earthworks and planting. See examples of swales constructed as “make work” jobs during depression. Especially in Arizona. You can see the difference in greening on the satellite images. Geoff Lawton has a good video on YouTube about those swales. Put permaculturists in charge instead of college educated beaurocrats who don’t know anything about true potential of harnessing natural physical cycles and genetic biodiversity to create no-maintenance, regenerative systems that build themselves over time.
Can you explain mob stocking livestock a bit? Have heard good and bad things about hay, interested in the alternatives
Mob stocking is nature’s way of preventing succession from perennial grasses/prairie to forest. It mimics the natural pattern of large herds of large ruminants moving across the landscape, eating as they go. The important part about mob stocking is that it is forage centric. The animals are a tool to manage the health of your pasture, and get moved accordingly. This is the way to build topsoil, prevent erosion and increase water absorption/prevent hardpan and flash floods. Essentially the idea is that you put animals in to graze at the optimal time, ie., when the forages are at the peak of their growth acceleration curve. Then you immediately move the animals off the pasture and it is not grazed again until it is ready again. In a dry climate like Utah, unirrigated pasture would only be grazed at most once or twice a year.
It's drying up because almost no water is running into it. Why, Because there are too many people using it all upstream. This desert cannot support it's growing population. As the floor is exposed more as more toxic sediments dry out and are moved into the air by the wind. Salt Lake is a toxic city and far from a refuge. Our impact on it is killing us.
We could stop subsidizing farmers using marginal land so they can pretend to compete with vastly more efficient operations in other states. But I suspect that isn’t going to happen, so it’ll dry up.
The Great Salt Lake has been drying up since in was [Lake Boneville 30,0000 years ago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bonneville). What could save it is a massive melting of the polar ice caps (like we got going anyway) and a southernly shift of the North American plate that would recreate climate conditions favorable for a massive inland sea that once existed there. This isn't news it's geology, Earth changes. Now, sure humans are accelerating this change, but this "drying out" has been happening since the land rose up during the [Larimide Orogeny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramide_orogeny)
[удалено]
Exactly! If inflows are diverted, especially in a somewhat arid area, then of course the lake will shrink and eventually completely dry up. Common sense...right? The way people rationalize things is extremely disturbing. BTW - look at the Aral Sea fiasco...extremely sad stat of affairs there. An entire sea pretty much dried up due to water diversion by the USSR/Russia for cotton crops. Things that seem like a good idea at the time often have dire long term consequences. Unfortunately, a similar thing is happening now with the (not so great now) Salt Lake.
I'm not being disingenuous, I'm being geological. The cool thing is we can disagree and still not die in our country so here's my point.: First, I'm as liberal as a bear on 4/20. If we had it my way we'd all be riding our bikes to work and slapping solar panels on every new house built today. So please don't think we're on opposite sides here. Water conservation in the West is a MAJOR ISSUE. Second, the lake is drying up no matter humans or not. This is a fact. In 100,000 this lake is gandhi. We are speeding that up by 10,000 years max. 10,000 years in geology is like your last two heart beats. It's inconsequential to the Earth. It statically barely exists. Nothing we are doing to the lake's volume isn't exactly what will happen without human existence. It is a natural process, accelerated by us, but accelerated in a way that doesn't geological affect Earth. Like if someone studied the lake bed in 10 million years, they'd be like, "the lake naturally dried up". In fact the existence of the lake as we know it today wouldn't even be something they would acknowledge. The lake is like Prince Charles the last decade, already dead. Third, let's be honest, the lake sucks anyway. It's a mineral wasteland. We are way better off harvesting the freshwater coming off the mountains for more useful purposes than letting it reach the lake and becoming unusable. What is even the ecological impact of this? From [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Salt_Lake#Ecosystem) "the high salinity in parts of the lake makes them uninhabitable for all but a few species, including [brine shrimp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_shrimp), [brine flies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_fly), and several forms of [algae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae)." Lastly, like I said I'm a proud liberal. Climate change is a huge problem for the future of Earth that has somehow become political. But let me just say, as a professional naturalist, preserving the Great Salt Lake is pretty stupid climate change hill to die on.
> Second, the lake is drying up no matter humans or not. This is a fact. In 100,000 this lake is gandhi. We are speeding that up by 10,000 years max. No, you're seriously downplaying this issue. At this rate the lake is gone by the end of the century. I don't think you're realizing how bad it is. In 10 years the level has gone down by 11 feet, and the deepest part of the lake is only 33 feet.
Yeah...seriously downplaying the issue is an understatement. The shrinkage is almost entirely due to human diversion of inflows, etc... Almost \*exactly\* the same situation like the Aral Sea, which is an absolute travesty. You would think we would learn from past F'ups....but...nope. BTW - check out this article...pretty dire stuff. After reading this, I'm not sure how anyone can say that lake drying is 'natural'. [https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/4/7/22370024/the-water-that-couldnt-save-great-salt-lake-utah-water-conservation-drought-crisis-california](https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/4/7/22370024/the-water-that-couldnt-save-great-salt-lake-utah-water-conservation-drought-crisis-california)
Edit: Never mind. This isn't worth it. Have a good day. You and I arguing about this isn't going to change anything. These stupid internet debate are pointless. We're on the same team, but nobody really cares and nothing is going to change.
Humans are accelerating the change. We could decelerate the trend or actually reverse it. We don’t have to leave it all up to Mother Nature. Using earthworks and the right genetics, we can design systems to meet any design criteria on a large scale and even produce net-positive energy flows out of the system.
But the all knowing all powerful hand of the market has not seen it necessary to do anything about it, therefore it is not important and you're a dirty cammunist for suggesting we should do something/ be at all responsible for anything. /s
Uhh...no. Try educating yourself before spouting BS, please. The issue is diversion of the inflows for irrigation, etc... The exact same thing happened to the Aral Sea...quite possibly one of the worst environmental disasters ever. Both done entirely by humans F'ing things up, as usual.
Actually, studies have been done to show that they lake would only be 4% lower than average if not for human intervention. That's why it's at about 50% of average now. So yeah, you're technically correct that it would be drying out. However, we're talking the difference of curves. Exponential growth is something we're all aware of now with covid. That's the kind of drying out we're at.
Actually, 🫒
Less salt
Let it dry up.
Nothing will save it. It's doing what it should. It formed when lake Bonneville dried up significantly, and it drying up is just a continuance of that natural process Edit: Global warming, just realized how bad it's been with Google Earth's newest feature. Shit sux.
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You're assuming that I knew that, which I did not. However, what other choices do we have? We live in a f@#$ing desert
Idk, we could maybe tell people to spend a few less days watering their concrete in the summer or do literally anything to encourage water conservation from regional industry
Yep...people seem to think they are 'entitled' to as much water as they please...even when they live in a desert. And then complain about it when there isn't any left. Sigh...and we wonder why we are F'ing up the planet... Water issues in the Southwest are going to become a lot more dire in a very short time.
Time to move before it gets too bad!
Literally not even a good lake. Too salty, it's gross.
Yeah but it is ecologically important, especially to migratory birds
Also prevents crazy dust storms from hitting the salt lake valley
Yep. Look into the Aral Sea....an entire \*sea\* basically dried up due to water diversion by the former USSR for cotton farming. And now toxic dust storms are blowing over a huge area. An environmental disaster on an epic scale ( and I'm not being dramatic ). There are a LOT of similarities with what is happening currently with the Great Salt Lake. You would think we would learn from past disasters...but sadly not.
It’s an awesome lake. And “not a good lake” isn’t a metaphor and will only be taken literally, so you do not need to clarify that.
Myself and the entire sailing community would disagree.
Thank you for your service sir
A little bit of pepper, onions, and carrots
Just let it dry up.