From our friends at National Audubon Society:
We are excited to share with you that the National Audubon Society has just released the Great Salt Lake Birds and Habitat Assessment—a science-based analysis that integrates habitat, hydrology, and climate modeling to illustrate the importance of Great Salt Lake and its wetlands for waterbirds. The Assessment was developed by Audubon’s team of scientists, with input from habitat and water experts, to identify priority conservation areas to help inform conservation strategies across the Great Salt Lake watershed.
The Assessment yields several key findings for conservation partners working in the Great Salt Lake watershed:
- The open water of Great Salt Lake and its surrounding wetland complexes—including Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Farmington Bay, Ogden Bay, and Willard Spur Waterfowl Management Areas—are of ongoing conservation priority because they provide essential habitat today that also are projected to persist under future climate conditions. Protecting water flows and preventing encroachment on these habitats offers the highest near-term conservation impact.
- Agricultural lands and degraded historical wetlands in the areas surrounding the lake represent conservation opportunities where climate suitability will remain high and where restoration or land protection can generate long-term conservation value.
- Maintaining and improving hydrologic connectivity—the network of streams, canals, and return flows that deliver water from across the watershed to the lake and its wetlands—is as essential to bird conservation as the wetland footprints themselves.
The Assessment’s findings illustrate how the future of Great Salt Lake is inseparable from the trade-offs we make across the surrounding watershed. Where and how water moves matters—for birds, for wetlands, for communities, and for the long-term health of the lake itself.
To read the full Great Salt Lake Birds and Habitat Assessment and learn more about the Assessment’s findings, the spatial prioritization methods, model inputs, data sources, and expanded discussion on application, visit www.audubon.org/gsl-assessment. Partners intersted in accessing the interactive web tool can contact:
