The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Bishop W. Christopher Waddell shared Friday, March 17, a sweeping vision of water conservation on Temple Square and at the Church’s temples, meetinghouses, farms and universities.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been reducing its water usage throughout the state of Utah for over 20 years, but Bishop Waddell, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, provided new information about the Church’s current and future efforts, during a presentation at the 28th annual Wallace Stegner Center Symposium at the University of Utah.
This year’s symposium focused on the future of the Great Salt Lake, which fell to the lowest level in its recorded history last year after two decades of drought in the West.
Earlier this week, the Church donated 6.5 billion gallons of annual irrigation water to the Great Salt Lake. The donation could be the largest permanent donation of water to benefit the Great Salt Lake ever received by the state. “We are committed to be a part of the solution to help the Great Salt Lake,” Bishop Waddell said.
The Church operates 2.4% of Utah’s irrigated agricultural land, and an ongoing evaluation could lead to additional donations. A future donation could happen under a new Utah law that allows water share owners to lease their shares rather than forcing them to sell shares that aren’t being used.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Corey D.March 20, 2023
That's nice of course and to be expected because the church goes to great efforts to keep a positive public image and we should all do our part to conserve. Last year I tore out my park strip and tried to put as much of the yard as I could on drip but this idea and huge media campaign the last 6 months or so about saving the Great Salt Lake and if we don't it will be an ecological disaster is for the most part scare tactics. There is no data to back up these claims because its never happened before, the Great Salt Lake is the result of a natural disaster and the whole Wasatch Front is living on an old lake bed, we have had huge dust storms for years. It also doesn't take into account that both humans and nature adapt to change. There is some historical evidence that it has been this low before but mostly, especially for those of religious belief it leaves out the fact that ultimately all of this and particularly the weather is in God's hands.