REPORT: Gov. Herbert Signs Great Salt Lake Death Warrant

.
*****
NEXT MEETING

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE NINTH (FIRST UNNUMBERED) SECTION BELOW FOR INFORMATION ABOUT OUR NEXT MEETING.


*****
WHO/WHAT WE ARE

We are a U.S. public-policy monthly discussion group founded in the Fall of 2005 that meets on the third Wednesday of each month (with adjustments to avoid secular/religious holidays).

Since February 2020, we have met via Zoom. [For the first 14.5 years of our existence, we met at the Salt Lake City Library (210 East 400 South) with remote participation via Skype.]

The topic is selected by the attendees of the previous month’s meeting. The focus is usually a book but frequently comprises only news items from magazines/newspapers/etc. This bulletin board serves, inter alia, as a place for members to post comments or additional reference materials prior to each meeting.

Our attendance averages 11-12. Participants come from all walks of life but our regular attendees include 4 attorneys and 3 scientists.

There are approx. 225 recipients of our weekly newsletter, many of whom reside outside Utah and participate by Zoom.

*****
40 SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS, 4 REPORTS & 9 REPRISES

We take great pride in our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail campaigns to America's decision makers which, with only a few computer keyboard key strokes, can be sent by each of our members (1) to the decision maker, and (2) to all of the member's friends and acquaintances requesting them to do the same in an unending chain.

Accordingly, we also take great pride that each of our official recommendations has been approved unanimously at one of our meetings or, at most, received only one dissent.

All 40 e-mail campaigns over the years are collected in this section. They include 10 e-mails sent by John Karls that did not receive an official endorsement for the rest of our members to send. The titles of the 30 official recommendations are ALL CAPS and the titles of 10 unofficial recommendations are lower case.

The date of the meeting at which each of the 40 campaigns was adopted is listed so that voluminous additional information about that campaign can be accessed by scrolling down to the sections of this bulletin board that relate to that meeting.

In addition, there are four items whose descriptions begin with “REPORT.” They are reports of our Great Salt Lake Working Group which was formed IAW our “Short-Time Fuse” procedures described in the next section of this bulletin board.

There is also a 1/20/2021 “Report” of our JCPOA Working Group.

Finally, there are eight items whose descriptions begin with “REPRISE.” They describe additional actions that were taken IAW previous official e-mail campaigns to bring their approved policies to the attention of additional decision makers.

*****
SIGNING UP FOR OUR WEEKLY E-MAIL

If you would like to receive our weekly newsletter, please send an e-mail to ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com with a subject, “Please Add Me To Weekly E-mail List.”

*****
SIGNING UP TO POST ON THIS BULLETIN BOARD

Due to sabotage and porn attacks, only attendees of one or more of our meetings are permitted to post on this bulletin board.

If you have attended one of our meetings and would like to register to post something, please send an E-mail to ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com with the subject, “Please Register Me For The Bulletin Board.”
Locked
johnkarls
Posts: 2034
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

REPORT: Gov. Herbert Signs Great Salt Lake Death Warrant

Post by johnkarls »

.
***********
7/22/2017 Editorial Note:

Although it is true (as set forth below as Item 10 in a 12-Item Time Line) that on 3/25/2017 Gov. Herbert signed Great Salt Lake’s Death Warrant, the first item available for download below is a copy of a 4/5/2017 letter that was sent to each of the 3 Members of The Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka Mormon Church) and each of its 12 Apostles who, together, govern its affairs -- to provide a Heads Up that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was about to be sued for fraud in connection with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signing a Death Warrant for Great Salt Lake.

On 7/15/2017, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the National Audubon Society had announced that it is opening an office in Salt Lake City to protect the Great Salt Lake and similar bodies of water in the West through water conservation.

The Salt Lake Tribune article also reported that the National Audubon Society announcement said that it intended to engage in litigation to save Great Salt Lake.

Although our 7/22/2017 weekly e-mail to our 150 members (a copy of which, together with the 7/15/2017 S.L. Tribune article, appears in the second so-called “Reply” below) says that we do not know as a fact that the National Audubon Society action is the direct result of our efforts, nonetheless --

(1) the CEO of the National Audubon Society was one of the heads of 8 environmental organizations (plus editors of 6 national newspapers) who were copied on (A) our 10/14/2016 letter that was sent Certified - Return Receipt to each of the 38 members of Gov. Herbert’s “Water Strategy Team” (B) our 10/31/2016 letter that was sent Certified - Return Receipt to each of the 15 top officials of The Mormon Church, and (C) our 4/5/2017 letter that was sent Certified - Return Receipt to each of the 15 top officials of The Mormon Church; and

(2) we were the only organization that had been advocating litigation (much less outlining in considerable detail the legal and practical considerations for such litigation).

BTW, although we have always prided ourselves in being a Non-Partisan Public-Policy Study Group that takes action in the best interests of our nation, it is interesting that NONE of our members who would be considered “liberal” in conventional political terms contributed to our effort to save Great Salt Lake, and that ALL of the members of our Great Salt Lake Working Group would be considered “conservative” in conventional political terms.


***********


The 4/5/2017 Heads Up that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was about to be sued for fraud was contained in the following letter that was received earlier today (4/7/2017) by each of the top 15 officials of The Mormon Church who, together, govern its affairs.
RL-d405-LetterToMormonPresidency+TwelveApostles.pdf
(46.44 KiB) Downloaded 852 times
Saboteurs deleted the foregoing document on 2/18/2022 - Here is a restoration -
Each of those letters had two enclosures --
Saboteurs deleted the foregoing document on 2/18/2022 - Here is a restoration -
RL-ca31-LetterToMormonPresidency+TwelveApostles.pdf
(44.61 KiB) Downloaded 616 times
Saboteurs deleted the foregoing document on 2/18/2022 - Here is a restoration -
The April 5 letter received earlier today by the 15 top officials of The Mormon Church should be self-explanatory.

Although the following time-line might be helpful --

(1) On 9/21/2016, Gov. Herbert’s “Water Strategy Team” met to consider a 142-page draft “Water Strategy White Paper” requested by the Governor. There was a public uproar at the meeting because the public was still not being permitted to see the draft. The meeting was adjourned following the decision to make the draft available on envisionutah.org/projects/utah-water-strategy with public comments solicited by a 10/24/2016 deadline.

(2) Our organization immediately invoked its “Short Fuse” Procedures pursuant to which all of our approximately 150 members were invited to join a Working Group to deal with the situation.

(3) On 10/14/2016 our Working Group sent by Certified Mail - Return Receipt its comments to each of the 38 members of Gov. Herbert’s “Water Strategy Team” and, separately, to both the CEO and COO of Envision Utah which had prepared the draft. Those letters are available for download from the second section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org entitled “Possible Topics For Future Meetings” by scrolling down to the posting entitled “ADDRESSED 2/8/2017: Destroying Great Salt Lake To Grow Hay For China.”

NB: Although, perhaps, we may be taking too much credit, the “Water Strategy White Paper” project was abandoned. Indeed, http://www.EnvisionUtah.org > Projects > Utah Water Strategy Recommendations -- still says at the time of this writing (4/7/2017) that Envision Utah is seeking comments on the draft BY LAST OCTOBER 24!!!

(4) On 10/31/2016 our Working Group sent by Certified Mail - Return Receipt a 4-page letter to each of the 15 top officials of The Mormon Church imploring them to call a halt to The Wanton Destruction of Great Salt Lake – with copies to 8 national/international environmental groups and 6 prominent national newspapers.

NB: A copy of those letters was one of the two enclosures to the 4/5/2017 letter, all three of which are available for download at the beginning of this posting. The 10/31/2016 letter has also been available for download from the first section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org entitled “General Info + Info Re Next Meeting…..” by scrolling down to the posting entitled “Short Fuse: Destroying Great Salt Lake to Grow Hay for China” from which the letter had been downloaded 1,657 times as of the time of this writing (4/7/2017).

(5) When our 10/31/2016 letter had been greeted by silence for 2.5 months, our 1/14/2017 weekly e-mail to our approximately 150 members announced that the subject for our 2/8/2017 meeting would be “The Mormon Church Condoning The Wanton Destruction of Great Salt Lake.”

(6) On 1/20/2017 our monthly Short Quiz was posted on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org. Its Questions 27-43 addressed the desirability of re-activating our Great Salt Lake Working Group to investigate the feasibility of (and, if possible, the institution of) a lawsuit against the U.S. Government for a Writ of Mandamus in U.S. District Court for Washington DC for its failure to oppose The Wanton Destruction of Great Salt Lake.

(7) A mere 3 days later on 1/23/2017 the Deputy Director of the State of Utah Division of Water Resources announced the decision of the Division that The Bear River Pipeline which would have caused The Wanton Destruction of Great Salt Lake IS NOT NEEDED UNTIL 2035 OR 2040 IF EVER because growing hay for export to China is so wasteful of water, that as farmland is converted to residential use, the demand for water ACTUALLY DECLINES!!!

NB: Once again, we may be taking too much credit for something -- but that announcement occurred a mere 3 days after our threatened lawsuit though the Utah Division of Water Resources may actually have had “a sudden epiphany on the Road to Damascus”!!!

(8) Nevertheless, Yours Truly persisted with approving the re-activating of our Working Group at our 2/8/2017 meeting on the grounds that 50 years of practicing law in NYC and London had taught him never to accept an assurance from anyone “who may not have authority to go to the bathroom.”

(8) The re-activation of our Working Group at our 2/8/2017 meeting was unanimously approved.

(9) On 3/16/2017 our Working Group HAND DELIVERED to Gov. Gary Herbert’s personal secretary our letter imploring him to veto The Death Warrant for Great Salt Lake. (Please note at the bottom of the one-page letter the hand-written acknowledgment of his personal secretary that it was received on March 16.)

NB: Our 3/16/2017 letter to Gov. Herbert was one of the two enclosures to the 4/5/2017 letter, all three of which are available for download at the beginning of this posting. Attached to the letter was the 1/23/2017 Fox News Channel 13 summary and transcript of the interview of the Deputy Director of the Utah Division of Water Resources announcing its determination that The Bear River Pipeline is NOT needed until 2035 or 2040 IF EVER.

(10) On 3/25/2017 Gov. Herbert signed Great Salt Lake’s Death Warrant.

(11) On 3/31/2017 Yours Truly, as the Chair of our Working Group, met in the San Francisco Office of one of the world’s largest national/international law firms with friends who had agreed to sue the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Writs of Mandamus on a pro bono basis.

(12) As reported in our 4/5/2017 letter to the top 15 officials of The Mormon Church, I was shocked to learn that they had converted the “pro bono” project into a lucrative enterprise by getting their wealthy environmental clients to agree to finance a lawsuit brought by citizens of countries in which The Mormon Church has no presence, against The Mormon Church in U.S. District Court in either Washington DC or NYC for alleged fraud for having engineered the announcement of the Utah Division of Water Resources that the Bear River Pipeline is NOT needed -- as a way to defraud worldwide environmentalists from NOT “remaining on their toes” to ensure that Gov. Herbert and Utah legislative leaders would not enact a Death Warrant for Great Salt Lake and proceed to such an extent (called “shifting the equities”) that no court would any longer order a halt to the Bear River Pipeline

NB: All of the legal issues concerning this lawsuit are addressed in the 4/5/2017 letter to the top 15 officials of The Mormon Church except “free exercise of religion.” It was not addressed because Yours Truly was certain that the 15 officials were well aware that the “free exercise of religion” does NOT include the right to commit torts such as fraud (torts are the civil law counterpart to crimes) -- as has been on prominent display for the last decade or two in the case of all the lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church for child molestation.

***************
THE END OF OUR WORKING GROUP

As reported in the 4/5/2017 letter to the top 15 officials of The Mormon Church, we have severed all relations with the national/international law firm that is planning to sue The Mormon Church.

There are two reasons for this.

Suing The Mormon Church is outside the scope of authority of our Working Group.

And the national/international law firm does not need us as plaintiffs in the lawsuits against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Writs of Mandamus.

Accordingly, our Working Group has “moved the ball down the field” as far as we can.

And now we can only hope that The Mormon Church finally calls a halt to The Wanton Destruction of Great Salt Lake without having its reputation vis-à-vis the environment ruined.

johnkarls
Posts: 2034
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

USPS Tracking Numbers For The Letters Described Above

Post by johnkarls »

.
President Thomas A. Monson
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7389

President Henry B. Eyring – Counselor in The First Presidency
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7372

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – Counselor in The First Presidency
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7365


Letters Sent To The Members of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Mormon Church

Elder Russell M. Nelson – President of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7297

Elder Dallin H. Oaks – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7280

Elder M. Russell Ballard – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7266

Elder Robert D. Hales – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7259

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7228

Elder David A. Bednar – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 0600 0000 6047 7204

Elder Quentin L. Cook – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7265

Elder D. Todd Christofferson – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7258

Elder Neil L. Anderson – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7241

Elder Ronald A. Rasbund – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7234

Elder Gary E. Stevenson – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7227

Elder Dale G. Renlund – Member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
50 E. North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7210


************************
Names and Addresses for the other 14 Cc Addressees:

The Hon. Erik Solheim - UNEP Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General of The United Nations
c/o The UNEP Satellite Office at United Nations Headquarters
405 E. 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7135

Mr. George Fenwick – President
American Bird Conservancy
4249 Loudoun Avenue
The Plains, VA 20198-2237
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7203

Ms. Lynn de Freitas – Executive Director
Friends of Great Salt Lake
150 South 600 East – Suite 2B
Salt Lake City, UT 834102
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7128

Mr. David Yarnold – CEO
National Audubon Society
225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7197

Mr. Gary Knell – President and CEO
National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036-4688
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7180

Mr. Mark Tersek - President
The Nature Conservancy
4245 North Fairfax Drive – Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22203-1606
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7173

Mr. Michael Brune – Executive Director
The Sierra Club
2101 Webster Street – Suite 1300
Oakland, CA 94612
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7166

Ms. Jaime Berman Matyas – President and CEO
The Student Conservation Association
4245 North Fairfax Drive – Suite 825
Arlington, VA 22203
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7159

Ms. Kathleen Rest – Executive Director
Union of Concerned Scientists
Two Brattle Square
Cambridge, MA 02138-3780
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 9467

Mr. Dean Baquet – Editor
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7319

Mr. Martin Baron – Editor
The Washington Post
1301 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20071
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7302

Mr. Gerard Baker – Editor-In-Chief
The Wall Street Journal
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7296

Mr. R. Bruce Dold – Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
The Chicago Tribune
435 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7289

Ms. Audrey Cooper – Editor-in-Chief
The San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7272

Mr. Davan Maharaj – Editor-in-Chief and Publisher
The Los Angeles Times
202 W. 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
USPS Tracking No. 7016 1370 0001 0501 7142

johnkarls
Posts: 2034
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

National Audubon Society Joins The Fight To Save Great Salt

Post by johnkarls »

.
-----------------------------------------------------
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: The Approximately 150 Recipients of Our Weekly E-mail
Subject: National Audubon Society Joins The Fight To Save Great Salt Lake
Date: Sat, July 22, 2017 - 0317 am MDT
Attachments:
-----------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

[Info about 8/9/2017 meeting omitted.]


**********
THE NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY CARRIES ON THE FIGHT OF OUR READING-LIBERALLY WORKING GROUP TO SAVE GREAT SALT LAKE

The Audubon Society, per last Saturday’s Salt Lake Tribune (the article appears immediately below but was published too late for last Saturday’s pre-dawn weekly e-mail), is taking up the cause of Great Salt Lake by establishing an SLC Office dedicated primarily to the preservation of GSL (though it will also focus on several other saline lakes in the Western U.S.).

Although nothing was said in the article about our GSL Working Group, it would be fair to claim credit for Audubon’s actions. After all --

(1) David Yarnold, CEO of the National Audubon Society, was one of the heads of 8 environmental organizations (plus editors of 6 national newspapers) who were copied on our 10/31/2016 letter to the 15 top officials of the Mormon Church. [A copy of that letter is available for download from the first section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org.]

(2) David Yarnold, CEO of the National Audubon Society, was one of the heads of 9 environmental organizations (plus editors of 6 national newspapers) who were copied on our 4/5/2017 letter to the 15 top officials of the Mormon Church [a copy of that letter is available for download from the first section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org.] – that letter contained among other enclosures our 3/16/2017 letter hand-delivered to Gov. Gary R. Herbert requesting him to veto S.B. 113 on the grounds that the Bear River Pipeline is NOT needed per Todd Adams, Deputy Director of the Utah State Division of Water Resources, because the vast majority of Utah water usage is dedicated to growing alfalfa hay for export to China which is so wasteful of water that as farmland is converted to residential housing, water usage ACTUALLY DECLINES!!!

[Our 3/16/2017 letter hand-delivered to Gov. Herbert had an attachment comprising a Transcript of the 1/23/2017 Interview of Deputy Director Todd Adams by Fox News Channel 13 in SLC.]

(3) Friday’s Salt Lake Tribune article reports that the new Audubon SLC Office dedicated primarily to saving GSL will actually ENGAGE IN LITIGATION.

Our 4/5/2017 letter to the top 15 top officials of the Mormon Church outlined how they were faced with (A) lawsuits IN FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT IN EITHER NYC OR WASHINGTON DC against both the EPA and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for Writs of Mandamus; and (B) lawsuits in Federal District Court in either NYC or Washington DC AGAINST THE MORMON CHURCH ITSELF for ATTEMPTED FRAUD in apparently attempting to defraud the public with the announcement by the Utah State Water Dept. Deputy Director into falsely believing that no further action would be taken to construct the Bear River Pipeline.

[The State of Utah has, since 4/5/2017, been barreling ahead with the Bear River Pipeline.]

Our 4/5/2017 letter spelled out in excruciating detail why those lawsuits could be brought in Federal District Court in NYC and/or Washington DC where they would be governed by non-LDS judges.

And why the lawsuits for Writs of Mandamus should be a “slam dunk.” While the lawsuit against the Mormon Church would depend on the facts that come out in depositions of each of the top 15 officials of the LDS Church, Gov. Herbert, legislative leaders, etc., etc. – but, in any event, would ruin the LDS Church’s reputation for being environmentally conscious, a reputation that they have tried hard for many decades to build with their Sunday morning telecasts entitled “Music and the Spoken Word.”

I do not know whether the decision of the National Audubon Society was taken as a result of --

(1) National Audubon Society CEO David Yarnold being copied on the 10/31/2016 letter and on the 4/5/2017 letter sent to the top 15 officials of the Mormon Church;

(2) The efforts of friends who are environmental attorneys in the San Francisco Office of one of the world’s largest national/international law firms with whom I met in San Francisco on 3/25/2017 and who had agreed to sue on a pro bono basis the EPA and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for the Writs of Mandamus that our Working Group had researched as appropriate. [As reported on p. 4 our 4/5/2017 letter to the top 15 officials of the Mormon Church, they had converted the whole undertaking into a lucrative project by contacting many of the firm’s environmentally-oriented clients who were eager to “foot the bill” for lawsuits in Federal District Court in Washington DC or NYC for the Writs of Mandamus and for a lawsuit in the same venue against the Mormon Church for attempted fraud.]

(3) Even if Audubon CEO Yarnold ignored his copies of our letters, and even if the environmental clients of the San Francisco Office of the large international law firm did not produce, directly or indirectly, the actions of the National Audubon Society, it must then have been a case that “great minds run in the same channel” (or as Brits would say – “great minds run in the same furrow”).

After all, our RL Working Group was the ONLY organization advocating litigation!!!

And our RL Working Group was the ONLY organization advocating that Gov. Herbert veto Great Salt Lake’s “Death Warrant” – Senate Bill 113 which Gov. Herbert did sign, following which the Utah Government has been barreling ahead with the Bear River Pipeline in an attempt to “shift the equities” (spend so much money on the project that no court would order a halt).

So kudos to our Working Group for saving (hopefully) Great Salt Lake!!!


**********
We hope to see all of you on August 9th.

Your friend,

John K.

PS -- To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."

NB: Please do NOT block our e-mail because you are too embarrassed to request a deletion -- 10 of our approximately 150 regular e-mail recipients use Comcast.net which has an algorithm blocking all e-mails from a website for which a certain percentage of recipients have requested blockage AND 3 of our regular meeting attendees who use Comcast.net now can NOT receive our weekly e-mails.



***************************************************************
The Salt Lake Tribune – 7/15/2017

The Great Salt Lake is half its natural size. Here's why that worries the Audubon Society and what the group plans to do about it.
National Audubon Society creates new office focused on making sure the Great Salt Lake has the water it needs to survive.

By EMMA PENROD | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jul 15 2017 10:12AM • Last Updated Jul 15 2017 11:25 pm

One of the nation's pre-eminent environmental organizations is setting up shop in Salt Lake City after authoring a report that indicates the Great Salt Lake is half its natural size.

Earlier this month, the National Audubon Society released its finding regarding the health of saline lakes in the Western United States. The culmination of months of research, the report is intended to kick off a broader initiative headquartered in Salt Lake City, which will aim to protect the Great Salt Lake and similar bodies of water in the West through water conservation.

According to the report, "Nearly all saline lakes in the Intermountain West have decreased in size and increased in salinity as a result of the growing demand for water from agriculture, industry, and urban users as well as from climate change." As a consequence, it says, migratory shorebird populations have decreased by nearly 70 percent since 1973.

"We think of shorebirds sort of like airplanes," said Ella Sorensen, who manages the Gillmor Sanctuary on the Great Salt Lake for the National Audubon Society. "The Great Salt Lake and other saline lakes are extremely rich in food. So they stop and gas up."

As the lakes' habitats have dried up, it has a significant impact on bird populations, Sorensen said. In some cases, a single lake might provide critical feeding and nesting grounds for the majority of a species' population. So if that lake shrinks or altogether disappears, an entire species could be lost.

The Audubon Society found that in the past 150 years, human diversion has reduced the amount of water flowing into the Great Salt Lake by nearly 40 percent, causing the lake to drop some 11 feet. The lake's volume, according to the report, has decreased to almost half of what it once was.

Previous attempts to preserve saline lake systems as habitat for migratory birds have failed, the report says, because they focused on conserving wetlands and did not address the need for these systems to receive adequate water.

So the Audubon Society's latest initiative will seek to ensure these saline lake systems have the water they need, with a focus on legal negotiations and government intervention.

The program means the National Audubon Society will be more politically active in Utah than it has been in the past, said Marcelle Shoop, who the Audubon Society hired five months ago to head the Saline Lakes Program.

The initiative also will take a wide look at water conservation across the West. The Saline Lakes Program intends to preserve nine priority lakes: headlined by the Great Salt Lake, but also including Pyramid Lake and the Lahontan Wetlands in Nevada; Summer Lake, Lake Abert and the Klamath Basin in Oregon; and Honey Lake, Mono Lake, Owens Lake and the Salton Sea in California.

Shoop, who comes to the Audubon initiative after working on biodiversity issues for Rio Tinto, said she's still mapping out the new program's agenda and looking for a location for her Salt Lake City office. Once that's set up, she said, Audubon will hire more staff.

Shoop said she sees the Saline Lakes Program pursuing two simultaneous directions. One will focus on educating decision makers and the public about the importance of saline lakes and the habitat they provide for birds. The other will work with stakeholders to find ways to reduce water use, avoid additional water diversions and eventually dedicate some inflows for use by the natural ecosystem.

In Utah, Shoop said, the Audubon initiative intends to encourage Utah leaders to find alternatives to large-scale water development projects, such as the Bear River diversion.

The Great Salt Lake will be a focal point of the program, Shoop said, not only because of its size and its importance to migratory birds but because the lake is at a turning point. Unlike other saline lakes in, for example, California, which have essentially become long-term restoration projects after being decimated by water diversion and drought, Shoop said she believes there still is a chance to save the Great Salt Lake from a similar fate.

She said: "Hopefully by being engaged now we can work with others to come up with solutions that create a different path."

epenrod@sltrib.com

Twitter: @EmaPen

Locked

Return to “Section 1 – General Info + Info Re Next Meeting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests