Presentations will be held in the Douglas Ballroom. The Poster Session & Reception be located in the Granite Ballroom. All presentations will be recorded and a full video archive will be available after the Forum.
Wednesday, May 6
7:15 am – Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:00 – Welcome
8:05 – Opening Ceremony of the 2026 GSL Issues Forum
Brad Wilson, CEO, Utah 2034 Winter Olympics
8:30 – A Global Perspective on Saline Lake Conservation: Bridging the Gap Between Science and Policy
Keynote: Egor Zadereev (Siberia), President International Society of Salt Lake Research
9:00 – From Strike Team to Standing Army: Long-Term Lessons from Coordinated Science at Great Salt Lake
Anna McEntire, Janet Quinney Lawson Institute, Land, Water & Air
9:30 – GSL Commissioner’s Office Strategic Plan Check–In: Where Have We Been, Where We Are Headed, and How We Hope to Get There
Hannah Freeze, Great Salt Lake Deputy Commissioner
10:00 – 10:30 Break/Posters
10:30 – Water Rights for Great Salt Lake: Are We Any Closer to Achieving That Dream?
Steve Clyde, Counsel, Clyde Snow
11:00 – A Healthy Lake by 2034, the Impossible Dream?
Moderator: Chandler Rosenberg, Managing Director, Great Salt Lake Rising
Steve Clyde, Counsel, Clyde Snow
Jody Williams, Chair, Bear River Commission
Joel Ferry, Executive Director, Utah Dept. Natural Resources
Teresa Wilhelmsen, Utah State Engineer
Warren Peterson, Utah Farm Bureau
12:15 – 1:30 Lunch/Posters
1:30 – Description and Costs of Potential Dust Control Options for Great Salt Lake
Kevin Perry, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah
2:00 – GSL Water Distribution Management Plan
Blake Bingham, Deputy State Engineer, Utah Division of Water Rights
2:30 – Update to the Great Salt Lake Management Plans
Ben Stireman. Deputy Director, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands
3:00 – 3:30 Break/Posters
3:30 – Great Salt Lake Rising: Level Up!
Tim Hawkes, GSL Brine Shrimp Cooperative, Inc.
Josh Romney, President, the Romney Group
4:00 – A Vision for the Conservation of GSL’s Watershed and Wetland Ecosystem
Jeff McCreary, Director of Operations, Western Region Ducks Unlimited
4:30 – More Water, Please! A Look at the Efficacy and Physics of Seeding Winter Storms Over Mountainous Regions, and An Overview of the SNOWSCAPE Campaign Going on This Winter in Utah
Peter Veals, Dept. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah
5:00 – So what’s the plan? An interactive session to shape the future of Great Salt Lake
Laura Vernon, Great Salt Lake Basin Planner, Utah Division of Water Resources
Jason Brown, CEO, Envision Utah
5:30 – Adjourn/See You All Tomorrow!
...
Thursday, May 7
7:15 am – Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:00 – Welcome
8:05 – Worth its Salt
Moderator: Ben Stireman, Deputy Director, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands
Christine Rumsey, Hydrologist, Utah Water Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
Phil Brown, Dir. Artemia Research & Quality Control, GSL Brine Shrimp Cooperative, Inc.
Kyle Stone, Project Leader, GSL Ecosystem Project, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
9:00 – Getting to Know the Invisible Sweaty Giant of Great Salt Lake
Moderator: Jake Serago, Water Resource Engineer, Utah Division of Water Resources
Paul Inkenbrandt, Hydrogeologist, Utah Division of Water Resources
Scott Hynek, Hydrologist, Utah Water Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
Danyal Aziz, Engineer, Utah Division of Water Resources
10:00 – 10:30 Break/Posters
10:30 – Acquiring Bathymetric Lidar Data In Lake Systems: Lessons Learned and Best Practices for Great Salt Lake
Michael Vanden Berg, Energy and Minerals Program Manager, Utah Geological Survey
10:55 – Functional Flows Framework for the GSL Basin
Melissa Stamp, Utah Water Resource Lab, Utah State University
11:20 – The Utah Migratory Bird Production Area Act
Jeff Richards, Utah Waterfowl Association
11:45 – 12:00 2026 Doyle W. Stephens Scholarship Award Presentation
12:00 – 1:05 Lunch/Posters
1:05 – The Data Is In: What Five Years of Counting Shorebirds Across the Pacific Flyway Has Taught Us
Max Malmquist, Engagement Mgr. Saline Lakes Program, National Audubon Society
Sharon Montecino, Research Assistant, Utah State University
Emm Clark, Avian Ecologist, Sageland Collaborative
1:35 – What IFs: Scenarios From a Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Model
Gary Belovsky, Professor emeritus, Dept. Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame
2:05 – Hydrology and Ecology of Terminal Lakes in the Great Basin
Christine Rumsey, Hydrologist, Utah Water Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
Scott Hynek, Hydrologist, Utah Water Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
Garth Herring, Avian Ecologist, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
3:05 – The GSL Sentinel Landscape Implementation Plan: A Strategic Roadmap for Partnership
Marisa Weinberg, Coordinator, GSL Sentinel Landscape Partnership
Lily Wetterlin, Water Resource Specialist/Data Analyst, SWCA Environmental Consultants
3:30 – 4:00 Break
4:00 – Whose Water? Whose Responsibility?
Darren Parry, former Chairman, Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation
4:25 – Agriculture, Conservation & Water for Great Salt Lake
Moderator: Hannah Freeze, GSL Deputy Commissioner
Adam Wickline, Senior Program Mgr. GSL Watershed Enhancement Trust, National Audubon Society
Trevor Nielson, General Manager, Bear River Canal Company
Deborah Van Noy, Founder, Utah Agricultural Land Trust
Nathan Bracken, Counsel, Smith Hartvigsen
5:30 – 7:00 Reception & Poster Session /Granite Ballroom
...
Friday, May 8
7:15 am – Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:00 – Welcome
8:05 – Great Salt Lake Minerals Resources—Context and Change Over Time
Andrew Rupke, Senior Geologist, Utah Geological Survey
8:30 – Great Salt Lake Lithium Sourcing and Groundwater Inflow Investigation
Eliot Jagnecki, Senior Geologist, Utah Geological Survey
8:55 – Lithium, Lilac, and Great Salt Lake
Mark Mulligan, VP Engineering & Projects, Lilac Solutions
9:20 – Securing the Future: The State of Utah’s Acquisition of US Magnesium Assets and the Path to Recovery for Great Salt Lake
Jamie Barnes, Director, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands
9:45 – Compass Minerals; Voluntary Agreement—Year 1
Joe Havasi, Director of Natural Resources, Compass Minerals
10:15 – 10:45 Break/Posters
10:45 – Why is Selenium in South Shore Bird Eggs on the Rise?
Moderator: Jeff Denbleyker, Project Manager & Water Resources Engineer, Jacobs
Doug Bacon, Remedial Project Manager, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Sam Lopez, Utah Water Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
Shazelle Terry, Chief Operating Officer, Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District
Damon Sheumaker, Advisor, Mine Remediation and Closure, Rio Tinto
Candice Hasenyager, Director, Utah Division of Water Quality
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch/Posters
1:05 – A User-friendly Tool for Estimating Great Salt Lake Dust Exposure for Communities Across Utah
Derek Mallia, Dept. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah
1:35 – Preservation and Protection in Perpetuity: People’s Perceptions and Participation
Moderator: Carla Koons Trentleman, Professor emeritus, Sociology, Weber State University
Jessica Schad, Prof. Dir. Community & Natural Resources Institute, Utah State University
Joanna Endter-Wada, Professor emeritus, Dept. Environment & Sociology, Utah State University
Kirsten Vinyeta, Asst. Prof. School of Social Sciences, Utah State University
Lisa Welsh, Dept.of Environment and Sociology, Utah State University
Sara Grineski, Prof. Dept. Sociology & Criminology, University of Utah
Shae Barber, MS Environmental Studies, University of Montana
Matt Gnagey, Goddard School of Business & Economics, Weber State University
2:30 – Historic Tribal Cultural Values Meet Modern Science
Brad Parry, Vice Chairman, Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation
3:00 – 3:30 Break
3:30 – Mono Lake: The Challenge of Implementing Protection Successes
Geoff McQuilkin, Executive Director, Mono Lake Committee
4:00 – Pride and Particles: Finding Balance in a Changing Lake
Molly Blakowski, Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District
4:30 – Science, synergy, and saline lakes: advancing hemispheric conservation networks
Marcela Castellino, Saline Lakes Conservation Specialist, Manomet Conservation Sciences
5:00 – Death in Iran: Lake Urmia, Somayeh Sima and the Struggle for Humanitarian and Ecological Justice
Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Watershed Sciences and the Ecology Center, Utah State University
6:30 – 9:30 pm — Reception & Banquet at the Alta Club
2026 Friend of the Lake Award
...
