SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's youth and Native leaders met on Capitol Hill Saturday to call for action on ways to save the Great Salt Lake they hope will be considered by the state legislature in the upcoming session.
They say that a "total and possibly irreversible ecosystem collapse is knocking at the door" if no action is taken.
And Utah's native people wonder why tribes have not been invited to have a seat at the table.
They say that sharing their voices is in support of a woman they say deserves to be heard—the Great Salt Lake.
“We need to start treating the lake as if she has rights. And the plants and animals and water, the air that we breathe," said Darren Parry, Former Chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.
"Everything has a spirit and is connected. And once you realize that, then you can start making decisions for the future."
He said that looking at the lake through the native lens could help save it.
“Native Americans have always looked at how we can make decisions that will benefit future generations and not just short-term.
And so those are kind of the value systems that we need to start looking at today. How can we govern for the future generations? Because we need to,” said Parry.
Future generations include Liam Mountain La Malfa, Founder of the Youth Coalition for the Great Salt Lake.
“Maintaining the lake, not just maintaining but returning it to a healthy level is necessary for us to be able to continue to live in our home.
Some of us will be forced to move away, others of us will have no choice but to stay in a declining state. That is, unless, we save the lake,” he said.
After speaking with each other on goals, they discussed how to approach the legislature in the upcoming session.
“Our next step is to bring some of the things that we heard here to legislators. We know that they will listen that they care about this lake as representatives for our state and so we’re excited to bring some of these stories and voices and threads to them during the legislative session,” said Utah State University student Sarah Woodbury.
La Malfa said Utah’s agricultural use of water is one area that needs to be addressed.
“We need to reduce agricultural use with the various methods of agricultural optimization and the state can help with that with optimizing agriculture and with using more effective crops,” he said.
“Ultimately things like that the state can assist, but we need to come to a place of deep listening.”
Parry wants to drive home that the time to take action is now.
“We need to make sure our farmers have an incentive to save, which now they don’t. And so there’s a lot of things that we can do policy-wise. And I think we’re making baby steps. But I think this problem requires leaps and bounds. But I have high hope, I know most of them.
"But I just hope we don’t get there too late.”
