The Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands held a public webinar on Oct. 17 to share information and gather public opinion on updated management plans for the Great Salt Lake.
The two plans in question were the Great Salt Lake Comprehensive Management Plan and Great Salt Lake Mineral Leasing Plan.
“These plans will ensure that the ecological health, scenic attributes, extractive industries and recreation opportunities will be maintained now and into the future,” reads the division’s website.
The plans will also help manage, allocate and appropriately use the Great Salt Lake’s sovereign land resources, as well as define goals and application strategies, according to the website.
The current management plans were established in 2013, but because of significant changes in the land and resources, the division had decided to update them.
The public webinar was only one step in the planning process. The division is still in the “scoping” phase of the updates, but intends to have a final draft by fall 2025 and a complete adoption of both plans in spring 2026, according to the website.
As part of the planning process, the division has also invited the public to provide input on issues and concerns regarding the plans through a survey. The survey will guide the planning committee in knowing what issues are most important to public citizens.
At the Oct. 17 public webinar, the division gave an overview of the plans and how they would benefit people living near Salt Lake. They also took questions and comments from the public to see how community members viewed the development of these plans.
Jeff DenBleyker, a project manager for the plans, said the plans are a combination of efforts from the division and the public in order to manage the lake’s resources most productively and efficiently.
“Effectively, as we look at the Great Salt Lake,” he said, “what we see is a story of collaboration.”
The updates, still in the information-gathering phase, seek to find the overlap between what matters and what can be controlled so that time and effort are devoted to those areas, according to the division.
At the end of the presentation, viewers could post questions in the public webinar chat. Several attendees inquired about how they would be impacted and what the significant changes to the plan would look like.
“Rather than just acknowledging that there are impacts that occur, we will look at those different beneficial uses and try to have management actions or recommendations for our division to follow,” Ben Stireman, deputy director of Lands & Minerals, said.
The main changes to the plans will allow the department more flexibility when taking action, he added. They hope the new plans can be flexible and develop as they receive more information.
“A lot of our information is going to be more of where the rubber hits the road but hopefully more adaptive as well — things that can be updated more frequently than once every 10 years,” Stireman said.
The division plans to hold more meetings in upcoming weeks near Salt Lake City and other counties to gather public opinion and spread awareness for the new plans.
New management plans are also in the works for Utah Lake.