The USU Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air recently released their annual report to the governor and legislature. The 2024 report is the fourth one released by the institute that features USU research on Utah’s environment. There are more than 50 authors on the report, representing six different colleges.
“We really are feeling a momentum towards understanding not just that land, water and air matter, but that we at Utah State are leaders on this area, and we're trying to do the best we can do to get good, unbiased data, informed information, into the hands of people who can use it," said Anna McEntire , the Institute’s managing director.
The report features a wide range of research ranging from important collaborations in wetland conservation to the state of air quality.
“On the whole we are seeing improvements across the state in air quality, and that's something that I think we have to remind ourselves, especially on days when we can't see across the valley, we are still making progress and improvements,” McEntire explained.
While researchers have seen a number of positive changes, there are some more negative trends as well. One of them is a decreasing snowpack.
McEntire said more of the state’s water is going to come as rain instead of snow.
“As we hopefully make plans to lessen the amount of of impact that we see in the climate, we also can make plans to lessen the impact of what those common impacts are going to be regardless and the more that we know about that, the more that we can be thinking ahead on how to lessen this, the decreasing snowpack, but also lessen the impact. Be more adaptive to those changes should they occur.”
The report also features two special topics this year. Forest and Rangelands, particularly looking at building up forest management in relation to wildfires. And, an overview of five ways that research engaged with Bear Lake, looking at things like micro plastics and invasive plants in the lake. For example, the invasive Eurasian Watermilfoil was found to grow faster in Bear Lake’s water than tap water and herbicides were found to be less effective in Bear Lake water.
In hopes of creating conversation and keeping stakeholders involved, the Institute released the 2024 report with in person remarks and discussions in Salt Lake City last week.
“We want everybody at the table when we talk about Utah's land, water and air, because we all can make a difference,” said McEntire.
For the full report visit https://www.usu.edu/ilwa/reports/2024/.
