How a brand-new lake and better communication could preserve Bear Lake’s signature blue waters

Editor’s note • This is the second story in a two-part installment on the environmental threats facing Bear Lake. For Part 1, click here.

Bear Lake • Bear Lake is a turquoise gem with two jewelers, and that’s part of the problem.

The weeds invading and threatening the beloved vacation spot don’t know — or care — where the state line is.

“It doesn’t matter if we kill all the invasive plants on the Utah side,” said Jessie Danninger, a program manager with the state’s Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. “If Idaho isn’t doing anything to treat their plants, our work will not be for much. We definitely need to coordinate with Idaho.”

Bear Lake’s Caribbean-blue waters face mounting threats from invasive plant species, sediment buildup and more trash from increased tourism. Danninger is among those actively engaged in efforts to protect and sustain the lake’s ecosystem.

She and other advocates say more — and better — communication with Idaho, which is responsible for half the lake, will be critical in preserving the water’s distinct hue.

Nicholas Zurfluh, head of the invasive species program for Idaho’s Department of Agriculture, said his team is monitoring, surveying and treating Eurasian watermilfoil, one of the pesky pervasive plants threatening the lake. A full picture of where the plants are growing, he said, is not yet complete.

Utah mapping half the lake

In the Beehive State, Danninger’s division has mapped and treated these invasive species for five years, but this is the first year it has surveyed the entire Utah side of the lake.

Once crews identify the invasive plants, they treat them with a chemical herbicide. Danninger said it’s challenging to assess the chemical’s effectiveness due to rising water levels and the plants’ unusual growth patterns in Bear Lake.

“It’s really hard to say,” she said. “But it is becoming an issue, because we are finding it in more places.”

The chemical used this year, ProcellaCOR, also kills the lake’s native milfoil plant. Danninger said preventing the hybridization of native and invasive plants is a priority because there is no known chemical that can kill a crossbreed.

“Maybe we can reestablish it (the native plant) later,” she said. “But at this point, we don’t even want to risk hybridizing the plants because that could be even worse for us.”

A call for greater coordination

While her team has been able to survey the lake’s entire Utah side, Danninger said, she was unaware what Idaho has undertaken to treat these invasive plants. When she started her position last fall, she said she was surprised by the lack of coordination between the Utah and Idaho sides.

While the Beehive State has its sights on understanding the spread of the plant, the Gem State is focused on containing the species before it worsens.

“We’re always looking for that silver lining that if there’s an opportunity to eradicate it, or at least not have to treat as many acres,” Zurfluh, the Idaho administrator, said, “that’s, of course, always the goal.”

Mitch Poulsen, executive director of the Bear Lake Regional Commission, said the commission, which coordinates efforts across state lines, has not received updates in more than a year on what each side is doing to address issues of invasive plants and other ecological challenges.

“The last meeting we had, it seemed like both of them were working on it fairly well,” Poulsen said. “But, you know, things may have changed.”

Bear Lake Watch Executive Director Brady Long said now is the time for agencies on both sides of the lake to work together to address these issues — before it’s too late.

He said the lake needs a commissioner, similar to the one put in place for the Great Salt Lake. The Bear Lake Regional Commission, he said, lacks the authority to hold state agencies on each side of the lake accountable.

“Gov. [Spencer] Cox hit a home run with putting one entity as the primary responsible agency,” Long said. “If we could get the governor of Idaho and the governor of Utah to come together and recognize that Bear Lake is the keystone of a $2 billion resource that will only increase year after year, this requires management in a much different way than has been done before.”

Solutions as clear as mud

While invasive plants spread, another threat is mucking up the lake’s water.

The U.S. Geological Survey is studying the flow of sediment into Bear Lake, looking to provide crucial data on an issue that threatens the lake’s signature color.

Since late 2022, when Utah was in the midst of record winter snowfall, the federal organization has collected gunky samples where water is released from Mud Lake into Bear Lake, and from where water flows out of Bear Lake.

Michael Hess, the project lead for this study, said this data, which won’t be released until September, could be used to understand exactly how much sediment is entering and leaving the lake.

“It can have a big impact on aquatic ecosystems,” Hess said, “including disrupting the food chain, water chemistry and potentially reducing the amount of variety of life that a water body can support.”

So far, neither Idaho nor Utah has made significant efforts to address the problem.

For his part, Poulsen, the head of the lake’s regional commission, said the issue hasn’t raised too many red flags for him yet.

“We’re really blessed to have a wildlife refuge to the north of us that acts as a filter for a lot of those sediments,” he said. “Is it perfect? No, but it’s better than a lot of lakes have.”

Anna McEntire, managing director for Utah State University’s Institute of Land, Water and Air, said the institute funded several student projects on Bear Lake over the past school year.

“Bear Lake has its own challenges,” McEntire said. “And one thing we do know by looking at Great Salt Lake is if we are addressing issues before they become environmental nuclear bombs, then it’s more efficient, it’s easier, it’s better.”

For one project, led by the university’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, students proposed creating a new lake in the watershed before Mud Lake, where sediment could settle naturally. This proposal also called for financing the initiative through property taxes from expensive waterfront homes on the new lake.

McEntire said the idea was presented to local leaders, encouraging students to “dream big.”

“In 20 years, Bear Lake is not going to be close to the same place it is right now,” McEntire said. “And if you start thinking ahead about what you want it to look like in the future, you don’t end up making some little problems now that would block the way you want to grow in the future.”

The extra trash that is plaguing Bear Lake amid increased tourism, meanwhile, doesn’t require a multistate task force or a human-made reservoir for storage. Solving that issue is on all of us.

Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.