Who Are We
Save Our Great Salt Lake is a group of organizers, artists, business owners, and concerned citizens working together to prevent ecosystem collapse at the Great Salt Lake.
Our Mission
We proclaim Great Salt Lake’s inherent right to exist and flourish. We recognize and uphold the sentience, intelligence, and sovereignty of this essential water body.
​
We hold Utah lawmakers accountable for taking measures to match the terrible urgency of this crisis. We demand changes that will reverse the active collapse of our irreplaceable ecosystem.
​
By holding space for collective learning and engagement, we work to protect and restore the lake.
​
We invite every person in this bioregion to share responsibility for equitable, long-term water stewardship and to cultivate their own reverent and reciprocal relationship with water.
​
Our Values
We Recognize our Interdependence
The life of the lake is inseparable from our own. We belong to the earth and to each other. We are kin.
Rights of Nature
We proclaim legally defensible personal rights for Great Salt Lake to live, thrive, and be fully restored. Over time, we are working to restore the vitality of the whole lake, including the “North Arm.”
Non-violence in Speech and Action
We are committed to non-violent direct action and non-violent communication. Recognizing that shaming and blaming do not ultimately serve the lake or the people, we focus our attention instead on making clear requests.
Bearing Witness
We ground ourselves in being present with the lake and the people, human and beyond human. We pay careful attention to what is happening so that we can speak and write on behalf of the lake, the basin, and the bioregion. We say the truest things we can say.
Trustworthiness
All of our books are open. Our values are clearly expressed. Nothing in our work is hidden.
We Revere Both Lake & Desert
We embrace our particular responsibility as desert dwellers to live within our means in terms of water. We advocate on behalf of all life forms that the gift of water in the desert sustains.
Everyone is welcome!
We transcend tired divides in service of saving the lake, our greater purpose. Everyone is needed in this movement. We value every witness for the lake and all forms of contribution to the movement, including presence.
Active Listening
We listen to each other by leaning in with a willingness to be changed. We listen to our collaborators in the movement. Above all, we listen to the lake. We turn our hearts and faces in her direction. This is not only a lake-facing movement but also a lake-led movement.
Build Resilience in Community
We are committed to biocultural restoration and know that to succeed, we must sustain the long game. We rest when we need to rest and then return. We learn together along the way. When we stumble, we stumble towards each other. We get up, and we keep going.