"Regulators’ Challenge: Saving, Understanding Great Salt Lake"

"They gathered in airboats off the northeastern corner of the Great Salt Lake shoreline. Above, clouds jostled in the vast Utah sky."



"Around them, marsh grass teemed with life -- White-faced Ibis, white pelicans, Snowy Egrets, Marbled Godwits and innumerable bird cousins darted across the horizon, splashed into the water and otherwise busied themselves with migration chores during a rest and refueling stop at the Willard Spur. The lake itself exhaled warm, earthy breaths.

Here, in the middle of wetland wilderness, members of Utah’s Water Quality Board could fully grasp the challenge ahead: learning how humans are affecting this one-of-a-kind ecosystem -- and someday determining how to protect it for the future."

Judy Fahys reports for the Salt Lake Tribune May 24, 2012.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune, 05/30/2012