“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Join Us In Our Great Work for Our Great Salt Lake
There's always much to accomplish, and people of faith like you are essential in helping us do it. Our lake may be vast, but she is on life support and incredibly fragile.
Attend Our Monthly GSLIA Committee Meetings:
We meet on Zoom, conduct committee business, creatively plan and assign tasks for future projects, and often enjoy guest speakers.
Some past speakers include Deeda Seed, Stop the Polluting Port Coalition; Jake Dreyfous and Ben Abbott, Grow the Flow; Zach Frankl and Amy Wick, Utah Rivers Council; Dr. Brian Moench, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment; Madeline Sueltz, Jordan Water District Conservation Gardens; David Wright, Landscape architect with Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Contact us if you would like to attend or present.
Current Projects
Reducing congregation’s water use: GSLIA is creating a draft strategy proposal titled, Significantly Reducing Our Congregations’ Outdoor Water Use. For our January committee meeting, David Wright presented. He is a Landscape Architect with the Meetinghouse Facilities Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and a member of QWEL. David shared with us the "before and after" experience of establishing a waterwise re-landscaping project at the Avenues’ meetinghouse (LDS Stake Center at 2nd Avenue and A Street) in Salt Lake City, as well as the lessons learned. Our goal is to share this information with other congregations to encourage similar landscaping renovations.
We are proposing developing two teams that any congregation could call upon:
Water Conservation Team. This team would provide technical information on what is involved in implementing a water conservation project. How does one tear out grass, plant waterwise vegetation, and install drip irrigation? What costs can be expected, and how does one obtain financial assistance? This team could potentially compile lists of contractors and provide landscaping examples (or direct people to where these already exist). This could be one team, or separate ones for home and places of worship, if appropriate.
Political Action Team. This team would provide links to Grow the Flow and/or other organizations, provide letter writing training, and provide information about opportunities for lobbying during the legislative session.
Fill out this Form to Join a Team: https://tinyurl.com/JoinGSLIATeam - you don’t have to be an expert—just have interest in making a difference.
Seeking ways to promote the GSL licence plates: These beautiful plates increase awareness for our lake while contributing funds for its restoration.
Supporting and promoting legislative action directly and through other like-minded organizations: Go to our fellow advocate, Grow the Flow, for the very latest in what is coming up to work on or lend your voice to. We will also post important initiatives on our home page.
What we’ve done
We and our fellow advocates have been busy. Here’s a few things we’ve done that are noteworthy.
“Spiritual leaders convene at Capitol to call for Great Salt Lake action.”
February 2023: “The Utah Capitol’s rotunda west steps were crowded Thursday morning. Members from various faith communities held signs reading ‘defend our future.’ Front and center, a red and blue banner: ‘Save Our Great Salt Lake.’” Read entire Salt Lake Tribune article
GSLIA presents two breakout sessions at the “The People’s Great Salt Lake Summit.”
July 2023: A gathering of passionate advocates, inspiring speakers, leading experts, and regular folks to organize, strategize, and plan the next steps to restore and protect Great Salt Lake. Go to The People’s Great Salt Lake Summit for more info.
“Opinion: It’s time we all discovered Great Salt Lake’s sacred significance.”
January 2024: “We call on Utah’s leaders and its residents to join us in recognizing the interconnectedness of all life and the importance of the Great Salt Lake in our ecosystem.”: Read entire Salt Lake Tribune opinion piece
Screening of “Whales of the Great Salt Lake” at Congregation Kol Ami.
April 2024: Sponsored by Congregation Kol Ami and the Great Salt Lake Interfaith Action Coalition, Whales of the High Desert explores the story of James Wickham, an Englishman who was reported to have brought whales to Great Salt Lake in the 1870s. Professor of Folklore, Dr. Lynne McNeill, shared why paying attention to his story today can secure the health future of Great Salt Lake. Listen to a Radio West interview with Dr. Lynne about the movie.
Helping the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation restore Great Salt Lake wetlands
September 2024-25: In 2024, GSLIA members, along with many others, helped restore wetland vegetation to the site of the Bear River Massacre in support of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone. Since November 2023, the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Salt Lake City has offered GSLIA the opportunity to regularly join them in Idaho, often by hiring a bus to transport volunteers. Restoration efforts are ongoing.
“Tribal leaders say researchers’ models have predicted that the restoration of Bear River natural habitats could help send an estimated 13,000 acre-feet of water to the Great Salt Lake a year by ripping out water-sucking invasive plants and replacing them with native plants, cleaning out creeks, and restoring old agricultural fields to wetlands.” Read the rest of article here.
Screening and Q&A of “The Last Resort” and “Listen to Their Voices.”
January 2025: Hosted at the Cathedral of the Madeleine by the GSL Interfaith Action Coalition, Grow the Flow, and the Youth Coalition for Great Salt Lake. Watch Listen to Their Voices here. Watch the preview of The Last Resort here.
Xeriscaping project by the congregation of Holladay United Church of Christ
August 2025: The Creation Justice Team of Holladay United Church of Christ applied for and received a water conservation rebate for converting a section of the church lawn to xeriscaping through the Utah Water Savers Landscape Incentive Program. Because the church was categorized as "Commercial" the rebate was less than the amount members of the church received for converting their home lawn to xeriscaping.
The church received about $1,800.00, which covered about half the expenses for the mostly DIY work the congregation did.
“Interfaith gathering at the cathedral will celebrate the Great Salt Lake.”
November 2025: “The ‘Our Sacred Lake’ event will include readings from Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ and Utah State Poet Laureate Lisa Bickmore. Various local musicians will perform, including Utah Symphony violist Julie Edwards....” Read entire announcement here. And watch the event here (Start at 5 minutes in)
New GSLIA Logo, branding, and website:
January 20266: Jay Griffith from Blue Cairn Media offered to create a new logo and website for GSLIA. We appreciate his expertise and passion and are excited about our new image. As an advocate for our lake, Jay was grateful to assist our cause and hopes it will help bring more people together on behalf of our lake. Here is how he described the thinking behind the design of our new logo:
”Multi-colored water drops intertwine to show unity and strength. Radiating outward, they convey flourishing, optimism, and faith. Core colors are drawn from the lake and landscape within and around it to reinforce those concepts. The typeface suggests action and flow through its tilt and letter forms. The “f” in faith accentuates the word, bringing more attention to both the “inter” and the “faith.” The typeface is readable, bold, contemporary, yet classic.”
We also want to thank Madison Roberts for helping us with our prior website and for technical assistance in transferring to this new one.
We are grateful to the many organizations we have common cause with for the health of our Great Salt Lake
And thanks to the many individuals who visit the legislature, write letters to legislators and other decision makers, sign petitions, advocate on social media, and educate and encourage members of their faith communities to help our Great Salt Lake.