Policy Associate
Stewardship Utah
Bio:
Chandler Rosenberg is a food and water policy professional and community organizer working at the intersection of agriculture and Great Salt Lake. A fifth-generation Utahn, she returned to Salt Lake City in 2017 after graduating from the University of Virginia with a degree in Public Policy and now serves as the Great Salt Lake Policy Associate at Stewardship Utah. Guided by a deep belief in the urgency of systemic, place-based responses to today’s interconnected crises, she co-founded the Utah Food Coalition and Save Our Great Salt Lake and serves as the board chair at Wasatch Community Gardens.
Title: A Healthy Lake by 2034, the Impossible Dream?
Abstract: Governor Cox’s Great Salt Lake 2034 Charter—a public-private initiative aimed at restoring and protecting Great Salt Lake calls on all Utahns to “stand shoulder-to-shoulder” and take steps to help the Lake. The Governor stated that “we will not let the Great Salt Lake fail” and that he’d like to get the Lake back to 4198 ft—the bottom of a “healthy” elevation range—by the 2034 Olympics. GSL Commissioner Brian Steed has suggested that a more realistic target would be to aim for a “healthier” range of 4,195 by the time the Olympics roll around. With the Lake currently at a bit above 4,192, and with us staring at a miserable snowpack and what promises to be another long, hot summer, Lake advocates would be thrilled to see an elevation anywhere near 4,195, let alone 4,198.
Given our current situation, is a healthy Lake in time for the Olympics an impossible dream, or is it really possible to get there? If anyone knows the answer to that question, it will be the people on this panel. These are five of the best thinkers in the State when it comes to understanding what might be possible during the next eight years—and—five of the people intimately involved in what can only be described as the most aggressive water law policy changes in the West, in response to the crisis at Great Salt Lake.
What’s needed most in this moment? What will it take to get more water to the lake? Is it just a matter of dedicating more funding, or do we still have to win the hearts and minds of Utah citizens in order to make this happen?
