SALT LAKE CITY — The Great Salt Lake Alliance and the Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office have released a new report capturing insights from the inaugural Great Salt Lake Solutions Exchange, a cross-sector gathering focused on strengthening, connecting and accelerating solutions for the Great Salt Lake.
Held June 22, the Exchange brought together representatives from 47 organizations spanning government, higher education, nonprofits, agriculture, industry and philanthropy. Eleven presentations highlighted state-led work already underway, followed by discussions focused on agriculture, ecosystems, infrastructure, municipal and industrial water, and emerging ideas.
A key finding: Utah already has a strong foundation of Great Salt Lake solutions underway. The opportunity now is to better connect those efforts, increase visibility into what is working and help effective solutions move from planning to implementation.
“Utah already has incredible people and organizations working on Great Salt Lake solutions,” said Lindsie Smith, Executive Director, Great Salt Lake Alliance. “Our opportunity is to better connect that work, learn from what is already succeeding and help promising solutions to move forward. That’s where the Great Salt Lake Alliance can add value, bringing people together around solutions and helping turn good ideas into greater impact.”
Across the discussions, participants repeatedly identified opportunities to improve coordination, expand access to information and data, strengthen implementation capacity, continue testing new solutions, and build greater collaboration and public understanding. Even experienced members of the Great Salt Lake community reported learning about projects and partnerships they hadn’t previously encountered, highlighting the value of simply making existing work more visible.
“The Solutions Exchange gave us an opportunity to hear directly from people working across sectors and better understand both the progress already underway and the barriers they are encountering,” said Hannah Freeze, Great Salt Lake Commissioner. “These insights provide another valuable source of stakeholder input as we continue updating the Great Salt Lake Strategic Plan and advancing long-term planning for the basin.”
The report identifies three next steps: expanding solutions-focused educational opportunities, improving access to information that can support implementation decisions, and incorporating relevant findings into ongoing state planning. Findings will be considered, as appropriate, as part of the Commissioner’s updated Strategic Plan and the Great Salt Lake Basin Integrated Plan.
The report also captures ideas raised during breakout discussions for future exploration. These represent participant perspectives rather than recommendations or consensus positions of the participating organizations.
Read the Great Salt Lake Solutions Exchange Report
Link to the pdf: greatsaltlakealliance.org/research
Recordings of all 11 presentations are also available on the Great Salt Lake Alliance YouTube channel: youtube.com/@GreatSaltLakeAlliance
About the Great Salt Lake Alliance
The Great Salt Lake Alliance is a catalyst and convener for water innovation, bringing together people, partnerships, resources and public support to help promising solutions emerge, succeed and create lasting impact.
About the Office of the Great Salt Lake Commissioner
In 2023, the Utah Legislature created the Office of the Great Salt Lake Commissioner. The commissioner is tasked with developing and maintaining a strategic plan and coordinating collaborative work among all agencies and interests in relation to the lake.