I continue to be ever more shocked at the staggering loss of wetlands and uplands that we face if UIPA and their various county partners are allowed to proceed with this proliferation of inland ports around and on the shores of Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake.
We all know how important those wetlands are to the birds, to the health and functioning of Great Salt Lake and to our air quality. The state has appropriated many millions of dollars towards saving Great Salt Lake, yet the state stimulation and permitting of these developments seem utterly counterproductive and disingenuous.
UIPA has formulated a wetlands policy to purportedly conserve, restore or mitigate affected wetlands within the port areas. They claim they will put 1% of the tax differential toward conservation of wetlands, an amount that is utterly inadequate to get such a job done.
However, it appears that UIPA only considers ponds as wetlands and discounts the need to preserve marshes, mudflats, playas, seasonal wetlands and floodplains. And that does not even include all the upland habitat being destroyed. Bald eagles, burrowing owls, several species of hawks and many species of songbirds lost habitat when UIPA opened the floodgates of development on the south shore of Great Salt Lake. The same thing will happen at the Weber County, Box Elder County and Spanish Fork port project areas.
Wetlands, especially mudflats and playas, are created over hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. They cannot be recreated. Once they are gone, they are gone forever.
We need our state leaders to call a halt to this unbridled destructive growth. We need the state to reconsider its support of these projects that only further enrich a select few ultra-wealthy developers. We need a fundamentally healthy environment, not more warehouses, industry, and growth for growth’s sake.
Heather Dove, Salt Lake City
