2025 Summit Program
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Check-in, Tabling & Networking
9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Opening Plenary
Welcome - Deeda Seed, Center for Biological Diversity
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Indigenous Community Perspective - Brad Parry, former chairman for the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation
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"This was the Place" By Erica Cohen - Film Trailer
This film is a coming-of-age story that follows Utah youth who are determined to be the first to save a dying saline lake. They turn their fears of a world without Great Salt Lake into fuel for action, staging visions of their own apocalyptic futures. Blurring documentary and fiction, the film becomes a cinematic protest that asks: are they rehearsing for what’s coming, or fighting to rewrite it?
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Ecological Condition of the Lake - Bonnie Baxter, Director of the Great Salt Lake Institute, Westminster University
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Troubled Waters: Great Salt Lake (An Oasis in Peril) - Film Trailer
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​Great Salt Lake Dust Crisis and Mitigation
Presented by:
Dr. Brian Moench, Board President of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment
Zach Frankel, Executive Director of Utah Rivers Council
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“Terminal” Directed by Abby Ellis - Film Trailer
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State Decision-Making on Great Salt Lake - Panel Discussion
Where do things stand on state-led efforts to protect the Great Salt Lake? What’s been done, what’s needed, and what will it take to advance meaningful action?
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In this panel discussion, we’ll examine the many institutional efforts underway to safeguard the lake—spanning agencies, organizations, and sectors. Representatives from the Utah Division of Water Resources, the Utah Division of Water Rights, the Office of the Great Salt Lake Commissioner, and Utah Water Ways will share updates on the plans, policies, and programs shaping the lake’s future, covering everything from water conservation and agricultural water leasing to coordinating with mineral companies and water districts, and deepening our understanding of the basin’s water supply and demand.
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Panelists will unpack the realities, constraints, opportunities, and trade-offs behind state-led action, share their visions for what’s needed going forward, and discuss how the community can support and strengthen this work.
Panelists:
Jake Serago, Division of Water Resources (GSL Basin Integrated Plan)
Micah Safsten, Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office
Blake Bingham, Deputy State Engineer, Division of Water Rights
Bart Forsyth, Policy Advisor, Utah Water Ways
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Moderator:
Chandler Rosenberg, GSL Policy Associate, Stewardship Utah
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Lunch
12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
Afternoon Breakout Sessions
Action Surrounding Great Salt Lake Dust: Physics, Impacts to Human Health and Economic Costs of Mitigation
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and Utah Rivers Council/Great Salt Lake Waterkeeper are compiling the most comprehensive report ever produced on the economic and public health implications of Great Salt Lake bed dust. It goes far beyond and is more alarming than what you have heard in the media. Bring your questions about how the jeopardized future of the Great Salt Lake jeopardizes the future of Northern Utah and the residents of the Wasatch Front, and how little is being done to prevent the lake’s collapse. You will leave with a clearer understanding of why it is essential to protect Utah’s most vital natural resource.
Saving Great Salt Lake Basin Wetlands
Join Heather Dove, Conservation Chair, Great Salt Lake Audubon and Deeda Seed from the
Center for Biological Diversity for a discussion about current threats to Utah wetlands and policy solutions to protect them.
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The Great Salt Lake Economy: Utah's Multi-Billion Dollar Economic Engine is Running Out of Steam
Join Professors Brigham Daniels and Beth Parker— Great Salt Lake Project's Director and Policy Lead at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law and Wallace Stegner Center respectively—for a discussion focused on the economic impacts of letting the lake decline. Explore the multi-billion dollar lake economy, pending risks to public companies and real estate, the power of legal innovation, and opportunities for businesses big and small to make a difference in Utah's efforts to restore Great Salt Lake.
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"Heading for Toxic Dust Bowl" Talk
When people ask you why they should care about Great Salt Lake, how do you respond? Join our writers' room to draft a "Heading for Toxic Dust Bowl" Talk in collaboration with local organizers. This talk will be our "elevator pitch" to get people engaged in the movement to save Great Salt Lake. If you've been reading the latest scientific articles about toxic dust or the latest policy actions by the legislature, we need your help! Our goal is to create a short talk that can keep the community informed on the latest findings and help people plug in to the movement. If you're a writer, researcher, public speaker, or a community member who wants to be engaged, come brainstorm with us!
2:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Reclaiming Bear River Screening
Over 150 years after suffering the worst massacre in U.S. history, the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation has purchased their ancestral homeland — called Wuda Ogwa, or Bear River — with a vision to return it back to nature.