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At a Utah debate tournament, teen refugees find their voices and build their confidence
12-15-2025 By Elle Crossley
Developing the skills to argue intelligently allows refugee students to ‘leave the label to the side,’ an organizer said.
11-05-2025 By Vanessa Hudson
From photojournalist to public servant: Bruin alum Jesse Valdez aims for mayoral seat
10-21-2025 By Pearl Ashton
'I think we deserve to start telling our own narrative rather than let others do it for us.'
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As winter sets in, the annual inversions that blanket the Salt Lake Valley bring along toxic pollutants trapped in a haze of cold fog. And the humans of Utah aren’t the only locals enduring these conditions.
Wildlife and animals in outdoor spaces at Salt Lake County zoos, aquariums and aviaries also contend with the effects of a changing climate and bad air, experts say.
Global climate change has caused turmoil to ecosystems, food chains, seasonal migrations and habitats, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Animals at Utah’s Hogle Zoo, too, are experiencing an ever-changing habitat and lifestyle, as educators and zookeepers adapt the enclosures and living spaces to the changing climate.
With Utah's unpredictable heat waves, less snow and increasingly frequent bad air quality each year, employees at Hogle Zoo are focused on keeping the animals safe and healthy while adapting to environmental changes that affect each species’ habitats and needs, said Hayley Parkinson, the zoo’s onsite engagement coordinator.
“Our zoo’s mission is to help these animals in their natural homes,” Parkinson said. “Climate change is something that impacts every habitat on the planet, so it's definitely something that is a concern for all of the animals.”
Parkinson works with programs like the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change, Polar Bears International and the Climate Alliance program, all of which strive to create more conversation about climate change using solution-based ideas for educators and encouraging community-based learning.
“[The goal] is to expand the zoo staff’s knowledge of climate change for the animals and the community,” she said.
Parkinson said climate change has become a polarizing and often political topic, adding she struggled to figure out the best approach in talking to diverse zoo-going audiences about its impact on the animals at Hogle and in the wild.
“[I] never heard anyone talk about climate change, only argue about climate change,” she said.
Parkinson said the zoo intends to simplify the conversation about climate change for the public, using information about ecosystems and the animals to educate.
“I want them to understand why the sea ice is important to the polar bear, and then I want them to understand the system that’s affecting it,” said Parkinson.
One of the zoo’s partners, Polar Bears International, uses education and outreach, research and advocacy to reduce the impacts of climate change, said Marissa Krouse, the group’s director of conservation programs.
Krouse helps develop and communicate the organization’s values and emphasizes the importance of sharing knowledge and the power of local education.
“Now more than ever, local community action is critically important, especially in the absence of federal action,” she said.
While the weather in Utah can span both hot and cold temperatures, Parkinson said the zoo must consider each animal’s natural habitat, including how weather affects its health and behaviors.
“Gorillas have a temperature limit of about 50 degrees, meaning that if it's colder than that, they have access inside,” said Parkinson. “They can choose to be outdoors or indoors.”
Although the weather may differ from the usual environment of the animal, the zoo includes built-in habitats meant to adjust the animals’ natural setting, using devices like heaters, misters, saltwater pools and climate-controlled spaces.
“As we see trends continue to change with warming, [we need to] make sure they’re still comfortable,” said Parkinson.
While the image of polar bears amid melting ice commonly represents a warming earth, Parkinson said the zoo’s grizzlies are also affected by climate change locally. The zoo’s bears, raised in the wild, came to Hogle because their mother often led them into human spaces looking for food. Their comfort around people, Parkinson said, made the wild a dangerous place for both the bears and humans. Living this way this can affect the bears' diet, nutrition and the territory they end up defending.
Austin Green, ecologist and conservation biologist at the Utah-based Sageland Collaborative, said the organization conducts science in service of wildlife and wildland, to affect change for both people and wildlife for good on the landscape.
Green runs Wildlife Watch, a camera tracking project that investigates the effects humans have on local environmental changes, and how it alters wildlife behavior, species and their interactions.
“There's a high likelihood that a changing climate is going to affect an animal's ability to adapt as climates get warmer and drier it becomes harder for mammals to adapt to urban development,” Green said.
While the effects of climate change on bigger animals, like bears, are more noticeable, even smaller creatures, like the Pine Bark Beetle, can be affected, Parkinson said.
While the insect, native to Dixie and Manti La Sal national forests in Utah, usually dies off in colder seasons, warmer winters have extended its life cycles and doubled its population, she said. The beetles, one of the most prevalent in Utah, typically feed on pine trees, which can create dead, dried-up bark and make forests more susceptible to fires.
Parkinson said larger, systemic problems show ties among animals at the zoo and in the wild and how they connect to the larger environment inhabited by humans.
“[We try to] cushion our animals here at the zoo from impacts of climate change,” Parkinson said, “but, hopefully, the animals … can help us tell the story of those in the wild, the issues there, and then get people on board with fixing it.”
The landscape of northern Utah is defined by its sweeping mountain ranges, beautiful valleys and expansive Great Salt Lake. Despite the disparity of these natural features, they are all deeply connected to each other as they play vital roles in transporting or holding water. This water that flows down the mountains, through the valleys and into the Great Salt Lake is the same water that powers our hydroelectric plants, runs through our taps and gives refuge to our local wildlife.
“The key thing about Big Cottonwood [Creek] is it’s used twice,” said Dustin Gilgen, water treatment systems manager at the Big Cottonwood Water Treatment Plant. “It’s used for power, and it’s also used for drinking water.” This plant is able to treat up to 38 million gallons of water a day, enough to fill over 57 Olympic swimming pools.
From the alpine lakes up in the mountains, to the wetlands down by the Great Salt Lake, our water traverses a very diverse landscape in such a short time.
“We are very fortunate that we have incredibly clean water here and it comes down rather fast,” said Teresa Gray, water quality and treatment administrator at the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities. “It can take just a few hours between the time the water falls in the canyons, and it ends up in someone’s home or in the Jordan River.”
Chris Eddington lives in a peaceful, modest bungalow at the end of a small dirt road in Tooele County. Three horses roam his half-acre property less than a mile from Great Salt Lake. Wearing a pair of cowboy boots, a plaid jacket and blue Levi jeans, Eddington said he’s frustrated with a recently approved inland port that’s on the other side of his horse stable.
“If they’re gonna put manufacturing in, I got to worry about pollution,” he said. “I got to worry about groundwater pollution because I’m on a well … all of this stuff has to do with my way of life, my property value. Who's gonna want to buy a house with a factory behind it?”
Tooele County resident Chris Eddington, whose backyard borders the recently approved Tooele Valley inland port project, poses for a photo in his house on February 27, 2024. (Photo credit: Xiangyao “Axe” Tang)
Eddington, like many in Tooele County, said he feels county officials and developers communicated poorly over the last year and ignored concerns during the approval process for the development of two inland port projects in the county.
Teri Durfee, a lifetime Tooele County resident, said she has opposed the development since she saw the first iteration of one of the port developments plans four years ago.
“The thing that upsets me is that there hasn’t seemed to be a concern for what the people most affected in the community care about,” she said.
Tooele County resident Teri Durfee, who lives near the recently approved Tooele Valley inland port project, posing for a photo on his property on February 27, 2024. (Photo credit: Xiangyao “Axe” Tang)Residents, like Durfee, say they worry about the possibility of the developments worsening Tooele’s already bad water issues, damaging wetlands and increasing noise and air pollution and traffic.
Ben Hart, the director of Utah Inland Port Authority, says that community input will be an important part of the port’s direction.
“Everything that we’re doing as a whole is according to local ordinance and anything that will require public transparency, we’ll allow the public to be involved,” said Hart. “And so I think that the ability to still help shape a good development that is very friendly to the neighborhood is not only possible but very vital.”
At a December meeting, the Utah Inland Port Authority board unanimously approved both the Tooele Valley Port Project – to be located about half an hour from the county seat and near Eddington’s house – and the Twenty Wells Port Project in northern Tooele County.
Nearly 30 people packed into the meeting room to share their opposition to the project. Among them was Durfee, who lives a few miles from Eddington, and other residents who expressed frustration the projects seem “all but decided” and have been since at least October 2023.
“My big concerns are the big growth we have here, the traffic and … [the] wetlands, that scares me because we’re losing [Great Salt] Lake,” Durfee told the board during the meeting, held on an early Tuesday morning.
Meeting leaders allowed four public comments, which added to the frustrations. Stop the Polluting Port, an advocacy group, held a conference directly afterward with residents to share details about their opposition to the project.
“It doesn't matter what we say, what we want – they're going to do whatever the heck they want to do,” said Mike Croley, a resident who has lived near the proposed Tooele Valley port area for 22 years. "I'll fight it until the end, but I think it's a losing battle."
Developers of both projects and city and county officials have argued the ports will create quality jobs in the community, including working freight and stock for the Twenty Wells project. For the Tooele Valley Port Project, clean air manufacturing and data center technician jobs are expected based on companies who have approached them, said Charles Akerlow, managing director for Zenith Development and the Tooele Valley project lead.
“One company is a manufacturer of electric vehicles. Another would build small 500-square-foot homes for use in low-income housing sites,” Akerlow said. “We have had several who will provide i-cloud services through data storage centers which employ highly skilled technical people.”
They haven’t yet been approached by companies that are trans-loading facilities, but he said the site is “well-suited” for that.
Some residents, however, said that's not much of a positive.
“They're not jobs that you could sustain a family and live off of,” said Kyle Mathews, who lives near the Twenty Wells project.
The median pay for freight and stock jobs in Utah is $35,400 a year, according to the state’s Department of Workforce Services. The median sales price of a home in Tooele County as of February 2024 is nearly $463,000, according to the Tooele County Association of Realtors.
Tooele County resident Kyle Mathews, who lives near the recently approved Twenty Wells inland port project, posing for a photo on his property on February 27, 2024. (Photo credit: Xiangyao “Axe” Tang)
Akerlow said it’s too early to say how many jobs the Tooele Valley development will create, but estimated the “current property size could generate as many as 1,500 jobs.”
Mathews, who opposes both of the developments, said he worries the projects will lead to industrial sprawl across the area. People, he said, don’t want to live in a “concrete jungle of warehouses.”
“Who wants that in their backyard?” Mathews said. “We're not an industrial community. We're not even really a suburb community – we’re a rural community.”
Bryson Anderson, one of Eddington’s neighbors, said people settle in the area to get away from noise in the city, railroads and traffic.
“[This project] kind of defeats the purpose of coming out here,” Anderson said. “It’s a neighborhood street, and it’s not going to be a neighborhood street anymore.”
The Utah Inland Port Authority has argued their inland port project sites, planned for across the state, will help Utah’s environment and economy because they support more rail infrastructure. But, the project has faced backlash since it was first created in 2018, which led to protests shuttering board meetings and ending in arrests.
Opponents of the ports have argued the projects will have a negative impact beyond neighborhood changes, including further threatening air and water quality across the Wasatch Front.
In a 2023 report, Stop the Polluting Port and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment said the ports are the biggest threat to Great Salt Lake’s wetlands, which are important to preserve in order to save the shrinking lake.
Deeda Seed, who volunteers with Stop the Polluting Port, said the coalition is already looking into taking legal action related to the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act as part of the actions around Tooele’s port projects.
“There might be litigation hooks for us, and we're looking for those because that is one way that is one way to stop the harm,” Seed said.
Tooele County, in general, has more unique water issues since they are not a part of a water district and their wells, which much of Tooele Valley homes rely on, have already started to run dry, according to the 2023 report.
Jonny Vasic, executive director of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, said his concerns about the Utah inland port projects stem from the small number of environmental assessments, human health risk assessments and west-side assessments.
An aerial photo of the recently approved Tooele Valley inland port project, which many local residents oppose, on March 15, 2024. (Photo credit: Xiangyao “Axe” Tang)
Several environmental assessments, including a wetlands mitigation study, have been completed for the Tooele Valley project, Akerlow said.
The 2023 report details that all Utah inland port developments could increase air pollution, noise and light pollution, and the use of pesticides, which could negatively impact nearby wetlands, the ecosystem and people who live close by.
The report noted that noise pollution is the second largest environmental cause of human health disorders after air pollution.
Artificial light exposure at night, which these projects will contribute to, can “negatively affect human health, increasing risks for heart disease, obesity, depression, sleep disorders, diabetes, breast cancer, childbirth complications and more,” according to Dark Sky.
Vasic said, regardless of the specifics of how bad the environmental impacts are, one thing is for sure—“there is no such thing as a clean port.”
“Any port that's ever come in increases diesel pollution by a great deal because more trucks are coming and going, increased noise pollution, … increased light pollution,” Vasic said. “All of those things have health risks associated with them.”
The Tooele Valley port project, located near the I-80 Burmester exit and one-fourth mile south of Great Salt Lake, sits on about 250 acres. It is, however, likely to increase in size, possibly as much as double, said Akerlow.
Akerlow said the port will include “light manufacturing” warehousing but didn’t share more details. Many residents said they are frustrated it’s still unclear what exactly these warehouses will include.
“How can you guys get funding, get approval for something you haven’t fully figured out?” Eddington said.
Utility work is in the early stages, including building a new road, setting up gas and electricity and drilling a new well. Akerlow said utility work should be finished by the end of 2024.
Although the project area includes some wetlands, Akerlow said they’re not planning to build anything on them. But Seed, who is also the public lands senior campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, said there’s still “obvious harm to the ecosystem” if you build near wetlands.
“You're disrupting everything, paving it over with concrete, depleting water resources and bringing polluting trucks in and out,” she said.
According to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, the wetlands surrounding Great Salt Lake are “of international importance,” especially since some estimate over 90% of Utah’s original wetlands have been destroyed.
“Wetlands play an incredibly important role and keeping all of us healthy,” said Seed. “They filter water, they help keep our air clean, they suppress dust.”
The Twenty Wells project covers about 500 acres and builds upon the Lakeview Business Park, a warehouse complex the Romney Group plans to develop. Josh Romney, son of U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, leads the project as the group’s president.
The land doesn’t have any wetlands, according to an environmental assessment conducted by the Utah Inland Port Authority. But an abandoned rail spur that Savage Tooele Railroad plans to rebuild to connect with the Twenty Wells project goes directly through Great Salt Lake wetlands.
As residents and advocacy groups continue to fight inland port development, Seed said she can’t help but feel Tooele residents are “getting rolled over.”
“These poor people who I've gotten to know over the years are going to be the victims of a huge environmental injustice,” she said.
Correction (April 11, 2024) • This story was updated to correct the year the Utah Inland Port Authority was created and added comment from Ben Hart, the director of Utah Inland Port Authority.
Andrew Christiansen, a senior at the University of Utah, wrote this story as part of a College of Humanities journalism course in partnership with the Great Salt Lake Collaborative and Amplify Utah. The collaborative is a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake – and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.
They meet with alfalfa farmers, lobby lawmakers and talk easily about the impact of Great Salt Lake on the economy — all while thinking about what they want to do after high school.
They’re members of the Youth Coalition for Great Salt Lake — teenagers from across the Salt Lake Valley focused on education, collaboration and legislation regarding the capitol city’s namesake body of water, said Liam Mountain LaMalfa, the group’s founder.
“Our greatest accomplishment … is bringing to the forefront the notion that the youth care about Great Salt Lake,” said LaMalfa, 18. “The [lake] is directly tied to our future — our future quality of life in the state.”
On April 20, LaMalfa and the group will build on that goal by hosting a “Saline Symposium and Celebration” at Salt Lake Center for Science Education. Open to all ages, the free event will include a youth-led panel discussion, teen speakers and state leaders discussing how to save the lake. Register here.
The coalition launched in the summer of 2023, after the First Unitarian Church’s Environmental Ministry – a group of like-minded adults – started talking to the teens about how they might want to get involved in saving the lake. Lisa Mountain, LaMalfa’s mom, was part of that group.
“I very quickly thought that it would be really important to involve youth, west side residents and youth of color,” she said.
Mountain said the high school group “resoundingly” decided to lobby the legislature. After taking several field trips to the lake and being featured in a July 2023 PBS Utah episode of “Utah Insight,” LaMalfa decided he wanted the group open to all high-school and college-age youth in Utah.
That’s when the group became the Youth Coalition for Great Salt Lake.
The coalition has a three-pronged approach, said Mountain, who acts as an adviser for the group. The teens focus on informing and educating themselves, collaborating with other advocacy groups and lobbying for legislation on Capitol Hill.
She added the group takes initiative, and in less than a year, have toured Bear River Canal Company, participated in vigils at the Capitol and met with lawmakers like Sen. Nate Blouin and leaders like Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed.
Sen. Nate Blouin talks with members of the youth coalition inside the Utah Capitol Building and during Youth Lobby Day. (Photo: Lisa Mountain)
“They inspire me constantly,” Mountain said. “They are motivated and dedicated and passionate about saving Great Salt Lake and about protecting their future in Utah and in the world.”
In early March, at one of their biweekly meetings at First Unitarian Church near the University of Utah’s campus, five of the group’s 15 members shared what the coalition means to them and why they believe saving Great Salt Lake is important.
India Elliott, a senior at Granger High School, said she joined the group because she’s always been interested in activism and is concerned about the shrinking lake’s future and its long-term environmental impact. She wants, she said, to be able to grow old in her home state.
“I noticed every winter, and even in the summer, when the air quality gets really bad, and I can barely see the mountains,” she said. “I'm literally looking through dirt and crud … and it makes me feel emotionally worse.”
Great Salt Lake generates around 15 dust events a year, according to reporting by The Salt Lake Tribune. Spring and summer are becoming more unhealthy, and dust from the exposed lakebed could carry arsenic, copper and mercury.
Cloud Garcia-Ruiz, a senior at Salt Lake Center for Science Education, said they’ve always felt a deep connection to the environment, which led them to join the coalition.
“When I heard that the Great Salt Lake was in trouble, I thought, ‘Maybe this is like a chance to finally do something about it,’” Garcia-Ruiz said.
One of their favorite activities was a tree-planting event, they said, because restoring a part of nature that used to be there felt nice. The event last October with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation allowed the teens to work with the tribe’s mission of stewardship of the land and environment, Mountain said.
For Elliott, attending the vigils for the lake – which took place every morning for all 45 days of this year’s legislative session – stood out as a highlight. Community members interested in saving Great Salt Lake gathered on the steps of Capitol Hill every day. Members from the youth coalition joined every Tuesday at 8 a.m., alongside Nan Seymour, a local poet who has spent the last three legislative sessions holding some sort of vigil for the lake.
“We sing, we dance,” Elliott said. “It's light-hearted when you're kind of, like, surrounded in doom and gloom.”
Great Salt Lake generates nearly $2 billion for Utah’s economy annually, according to the state’s website. It contributes 5 to 10% to the lake effect snow, creating $1.2 billion for the ski industry.
“We're looking at a serious economic downturn, which is a scary thought to think about the workforce being impacted by losing billions upon billions of dollars in economic growth — gone,” LaMalfa said.
Part of the coalition’s approach is educating others and informing themselves of the science behind Great Salt Lake. Soon after the coalition’s founding, the group toured the Bear River Canal Company, which oversees 126 miles of the Bear River, Great Salt Lake’s largest tributary.
Mountain said they’ve also met with alfalfa farmers and other stakeholders, like Commissioner Steed, to get a variety of perspectives on the issue of the lake. Steed discussed with the group what youth could do to help save the lake, which includes a cultural shift, LaMalfa said.
“To really understand his perspective and cement the notion of cultural change is the thing we need,” he said.
Elliott made a slideshow about saving the lake to educate classmates and friends and to present at events. In it, she argued shifting the culture means changing how people think about using water and made suggestions like removing non-functional turf grass, installing water-wise landscaping and metering water use.
Izzy Khachatryan, a junior at Skyline High School, said she knew she wanted to get other youth involved in the issue of Great Salt Lake.
“Culture drives policy, and we need policy changes in order to get water back to the lake,” Khachatryan said. “In order to do that, we obviously need people to be aware of the issues and be committed to the issues and that starts with advocacy, which is what one of our groups' main focus is.”
While Utah lawmakers dubbed 2022 “the year of water,” the most recent legislative session did not deliver the same vigor around issues related to the lake. The number of bills passed was deemed “average” by experts who said lawmakers made enough “technical changes” like measuring, tracking and saving water to keep water policy moving in the right direction.
During the session, members of the youth coalition met with lawmakers – including Blouin, a Democrat representing the South Salt Lake City neighborhood – to discuss how they could be most impactful. Blouin, who has been working with the group since last summer, said engaging with the teens has been great.
“The legislators are not particularly representative of the population as a whole, definitely from an age perspective,” Blouin said. “Giving younger folks an opportunity to get up there and to feel like their voices are being heard even when it can be challenging … that’s important.”
Elliott said it was rewarding to experience lobby day on the hill — asking people to support bills or thanking them for their support.
“It was very empowering to talk to the important people and be heard,” Elliott said.
Utah is a young state, with the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau showing a median age of 31.3 years with the country’s highest share of people under 18 at 29%.
“These are … young people who are going to have to live with the consequences of the actions that we take as legislators and the decisions we make as a state,” Blouin said.
Students will join other state leaders and lawmakers – including Steed, Rep. Angela Romero and Sen. Luz Escamilla, both Democrats from Salt Lake City – at the event on April 20 as part of a panel discussion about the lake.
As for the future of the coalition, LaMalfa said he would like to bring chapters to high schools and the University of Utah. The group, he said, has made it clear Great Salt Lake is their future.
“The more I talk to people, the more people seem to have a little bit of an understanding of Great Salt Lake,” he said. “That understanding seems to be getting steadily larger … [and] when every person in the state really knows about Great Salt Lake, it'll be impossible to do anything but save her.”
Vanessa Hudson, a student at the University of Utah, wrote this story as part of a College of Humanities journalism course in partnership with the Great Salt Lake Collaborative and Amplify Utah. The collaborative is a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake – and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.
