Great Salt Lake Reinvigorated Me, Even Though She's on Her Deathbed
I think I’m getting back into creative alignment
I promise we will return to the Proust Questionnaire the second week of September once I’ve wrapped up a few hectic weeks of traveling.
I’m Back From Great Salt Lake
I have seen Great Salt Lake just twice in my lifetime. Once three years ago on a road trip to visit friends in Bellingham (months before I knew I’d be moving there), and again last week to do some reporting for a story with KZMU — a radio station local to Moab, Utah.
This will be the first audio story I’ve produced since grad school and apparently, 6.5 years is roughly the amount of time I needed to not be burned out on the skills I learned and used every day in my Master’s program. Once grad school was over, I set down my tools, my Zoom recorders, and my cameras feeling grateful that instead of journalism I had found a career in nonprofits where I could leave all that technical gear behind (and make more money).
So I was a little surprised when I picked up my new Zoom recorder and shotgun mic and felt a thrill run through my spine. This story is not strictly speaking journalism (whatever the hell that means — grad school was long and hard for me because I fought the old-guard journalism institution and its professors every step of the way — maybe someday I’ll write more about everything I hate about “journalism”) but is rather some blend of literature, reporting, poetry, and philosophy. It’s for KZMU’s annual “audio magazine” which is something like a podcast and something like radio and something different entirely. Maybe I felt the sparkle because it was so comforting to be back in this liminal space where anything could be anything if I could just find a way to imbue it with enough meaning.
Dispatch From Antelope Island
I packed up early on Friday morning, downloaded Terry Tempest Williams’ Refuge, and for the next eight hours cried and swooned over the desert landscape unfolding before me.
When I arrived at Antelope Island State Park later that afternoon, I pulled off to the side of the road on the causeway connecting Syracuse, Utah to the island and stared at the empty alkaline flats which just three years ago had been buried beneath salty water. Last year, Great Salt Lake levels dropped so low that a land bridge formed between the mainland and the island. This state of half-cracked desert earth, half-briny water, I was told, was good news.
When I got to my campsite and set up my tent, I couldn’t help but feel that Great Salt Lake’s death was looming. That there was something strange about all the joyful tourists and campers snapping photos, running through brine flies, and wading ankle-deep in the salt water.
I don’t want to say too much more before I’ve gotten this story out, but what I can tell you is this: Scientists expect Great Salt Lake has maybe five more years before drying completely, and just 2-3 more years before the salt concentration gets so high that it cannot sustain life. It’s unclear if we cross these thresholds if adding water back into the lake at a later date could save the ecosystem or if it’s done for good.
And most importantly, climate change really isn’t to blame for this crisis. Water diversions from various rivers, especially the Bear River, is causing the most damage. And alfalfa farmers are using most of the Bear’s water. Which is to say, saving Great Salt Lake is entirely within our control. And when I say our control, I suppose I really mean in our lawmakers’ control. So there is much to be anxious about and much to mourn and also much to connect with while the lake is still here.
Coming Up
Next week, I leave for a five-day raft trip down the Gates of Lodore in Vernal, Utah with Freeflow Institute (still one spot left if you want to join me!) on a storytelling course with Ed Roberson, where unsurprisingly, we’ll be talking about water issues in the West. I’m thrilled to have received a scholarship to cover a substantial portion of the cost of the course and feel intuitively that my creative life is getting back into alignment.
The spark I felt upon my return from Great Salt Lake has spurred me back into creative action. I’m thinking about audio stories. I’m thinking about short videos. I’m thinking about photography. I’m writing, I’m researching, and I’m finding inspiration everywhere. But mostly, I’m wondering if I’ve been so caught up in the idea of writing a book for the last few years that I forgot my real passion is telling stories, whatever form they take.
What if I never write a book, but I tell a lot of great stories throughout my life? Could that be enough for me?
Strangely, even as I consider adopting new platforms for my work, I have to admit that I wrote and read more in the last week than I have in a long time. I’ve been enamored with Great Salt Lake, its history, its philosophical arguments, and how difficult it is to get people to open their eyes to its demise. I won’t go so far as to say creativity felt easier, but it did feel more accessible than it had in the months and years prior.
I’m almost finished with the piece and I can’t wait to share it with you in the next couple months.
Stay tuned for more!
Have a blast in your raft trip! Post lots of photos.
Yay. So glad, Anja.