Watershed Symposium 2022

Resilient watersheds are capable of withstanding and responding to natural disturbances, including wildfire. Collaborative, cross-boundary forest management that creates fire adapted ecosystems and communities will aid our efforts to protect vulnerable water resources and ensure long term water security.

In August of 2021, the Parleys Canyon Fire started alongside Interstate 80. Beginning with two small brush fires, by mid afternoon, the fire spread to 500 acres. Driven by winds and dry conditions, the fire forced residents of the surrounding areas to evacuate from over 5,000 homes. Multiple agencies responded to the fire and were able to fully contain the blaze after eight days. The Parleys Canyon fire presents an example of how a rapid, coordinated response to fire, and some luck, prevented a more severe fire event from destroying communities and threatening water security. Wildfire is a natural and expected occurrence in Utah’s forests, and it plays an important role in the ongoing health and resilience of Utah’s water resources. Past fire suppression practices have contributed to the increase in large, severe wildfires that cause detrimental impacts to habitats, homes, and vulnerable water resources. In the face of climate change, long-term water security is a growing concern, and the impact of catastrophic wildfires on the natural resource we depend on for drinking, irrigation, fishing, and recreation cannot be ignored. Wildfires impact air quality and may also affect available water quality and quantity, both during an active wildfire event and for years afterwards. Past fire events, including the Dollar Ridge Fire, demonstrate the disastrous impacts severe wildfires can have on Utah’s watersheds and the challenges these events present to water resource managers.

The connection between resilient, disturbance adapted forests and a sustainable supply of water is especially evident in Utah and similarly arid states. About half of the water supply in the southwestern United States comes from forests. Approximately 80% of the freshwater resources in the U.S. originate on forested land, and more than 3,400 public drinking water systems are located in watersheds on national forest lands. As we have seen an increase in the number of acres of important forested water-supply watersheds burned in the past 30 years, we have also seen an increase in flooding and erosion that can impair already vulnerable water supplies. Fire events, such as Parleys Canyon, provide homeowners and land managers with an opportunity to recognize the need for wildfire mitigation planning that protects communities and water sources along the Wasatch Front. Through shared stewardship, Utah partners with agencies, entities, and organizations to actively mitigate the impacts of catastrophic wildfire on a landscape scale, with the express purpose of protecting communities and watersheds. Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD) manages the Central Utah Project (CUP) and District network of water facilities to ensure citizens and businesses along the Wasatch Front receive clean, reliable water. Operating three water treatment facilities, two hydroelectric plants, nine reservoirs, and overseeing water supply to eight counties, CUWCD recognizes the vulnerabilities of our water infrastructure and the need for collaborative watershed management.

This presentation will highlight both the impact severe wildfires can have on water treatment facilities and the need for collaborative wildfire management to maintain Utah’s current water quality and quantity.

GSL is shrinking and the water users throughout the basin are struggling. A comprehensive supply-demand study of the entire GSL basin has never been accomplished so the Utah Division of Water Resources, USBR and water users have applied to do a basin study to provide the information necessary for sound decision-making.

This year the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) has WaterSMART funding available through the Basin Study program for the first time in 5 years. In partnership with water conservancy districts, water users associations, irrigation companies, universities and environmental advocate groups throughout the basin, the Utah Division of Water Resources has applied for a basin study. Basin Studies are collaborative planning efforts cost-shared with non-Federal partners to first assess water supply and demand, then identify strategies to address imbalances. This would be an enormous task, never before undertaken but such a study must be done because only collaborative efforts can attain meaningful solutions to a sickening lake and reduced water supply. Water resource management in the GSL Basin is complex, collective effects on the lake from upstream activities are poorly understood, and upstream water users struggle to understand how best to mitigate adverse impacts to GSL while meeting the needs of water users, making it a perfect basin for this type of study. Attendees will learn what the study would entail and how it would be helpful for water management and policy in the GSL basin.

In this workshop we showcase the tools available to residents of the Great Salt Lake watershed to stabilize plummeting levels of the American West’s largest lake. The Great Salt Lake Open Toolbox is a collection of immediately implementable strategies and policies which offer us a suite of solutions to save the Lake.

Public concern about the ailing Great Salt Lake has reached new heights as the Lake dropped to a record low level for the second year in a row as a function of climate change and its shrinking of our snowpacks. News outlets around the globe reported on the crisis, garnering international attention for our capital city’s namesake. The silver lining of this unfolding environmental crisis at the Great Salt Lake is that Utahns from all walks of life are eager to learn about what can be done to save the Great Salt Lake in the face of climate change. A range of stakeholders and members of the public have used public forums, op-eds, official meetings, social media and a litany of other avenues to plead with others to solve the problem. This echo chamber has created momentum, and millions of Utahns are eager to get involved and be part of the solution to protect the American West’s largest lake from shrinking further. While nearly everybody agrees that we need to save the Lake, there isn’t much consensus on the best way to achieve that. What is the best way to keep water in the Great Salt Lake?

In this presentation, we open and unpack the tools available to save the Great Salt Lake and showcase which options have the potential to truly stabilize the water levels of the American West’s largest lake. We will explore which tools are ready to be implemented, what barriers there are to using other tools and how much water the Great Salt Lake really needs to sustain our people, our wildlife and our economy. The Great Salt Lake Open Toolbox has been assembled by studying the lessons learned from other western cities and states that have managed to protect their local aquatic landscapes. While no one tool may be a silver bullet for all the Lake’s problems, smart implementation of several tools at once could be a ‘silver buckshot’ to restore this vital aquatic ecosystem and the economy it supports.

This workshop explores what it means to save the Great Salt Lake by utilizing a collection of strategies and policies to get more water to the lake. We will unpack how each tool can contribute toward a sustainable paradigm for the Lake and its needed water budget. This workshop is jam-packed with solutions to save the Great Salt Lake and participants will leave inspired in the knowledge that there are tools to ensure we scan ustain the Lake for generations to come.