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Leia Larsen

Water and land use reporter

Leia Larsen is a sixth generation Utahn and a water and land use reporter reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune. She has covered environment, energy and political issues throughout the West. When she’s not chasing the news, Leia can be found exploring the Wasatch Mountains, sleeping in the desert or rooting around her garden.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Construction near the site of the old Geneva Steel mill in Vineyard City, on Friday, April 19, 2024. The city plans to redevelop the site into its future downtown core, called "Utah City," and the mayor and her staff have been traveling around the world ostensibly to promote it.

A small Utah city is sending its mayor and her staff on spendy trade missions around the world. Not everyone is happy.

By Leia Larsen | April 22, 2024, 12:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Great Salt Lake advocate and activist author Terry Tempest Williams, center, joins environmental groups, scientists and community members on the steps of the Utah Capitol to petition for a threatened species listing of Wilson's phalarope on Thursday, March 28, 2024, and by extension the health of the Great Salt Lake.

How a tiny bird could trigger a federal response on Great Salt Lake

By Leia Larsen | March 29, 2024, 4:17 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jordan Clayton with a snow sampler at the Tony Grove SNOTEL site on Friday, March 8, 2024.

Here’s where Utah’s 2024 snowpack stands — and who figures that out

By Leia Larsen | March 18, 2024, 2:45 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Great Salt Lake Marina, on Friday, December 29, 2023.

Great Salt Lake might jump 1.2 feet this spring

By Leia Larsen | March 15, 2024, 7:59 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Microbialite structures seen at the Great Salt Lake on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023.

New critters found living in the water of the Great Salt Lake

By Leia Larsen | March 13, 2024, 12:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Boaters with the Returning Rapids Project float down the Colorado River as they study the effects of an ever-receding Lake Powell in Cataract Canyon in October 2021.

A simple change could save the West from drought. You probably won’t like it.

By Leia Larsen | March 13, 2024, 3:58 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Boaters recreate on Lake Powell near Page, Ariz. on Thursday, July 13, 2023.

Lake Powell recreation managers report record visitation, but some say the numbers don’t add up

By Leia Larsen | March 11, 2024, 12:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Wetlands at Goshen Bay, on the south end of Utah Lake, on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024.

Utah is on the hunt for new water supplies. Here’s what else lawmakers did to address our water challenges.

By Leia Larsen | March 5, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Demonstrators with Making Waves for Great Salt Lake Artist Collaborative gather for a vigil for the Great Salt Lake at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024.

Why did lawmakers cut funds for a project meant to help GSL while bankrolling a reservoir that’s not ready for ‘prime time?’

By Leia Larsen | February 29, 2024, 7:40 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Wetlands at Goshen Bay, on the south end of Utah Lake, on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024.

Could a bill to study Utah Lake end up supporting a reservoir in the Great Salt Lake?

By Leia Larsen | February 28, 2024, 8:31 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Bonneville Salt Flats, comprised of mostly sodium chloride that forms a hard, white salt crust and home to numerous land speed records, are covered in nine inches of water, forming a shallow lake on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. With nowhere for the rain and snow melt to go, precipitation slowly evaporates throughout the year to restore the flat's delicate salt layer.

Turns out, the Bonneville Salt Flats have nothing to do with ancient Lake Bonneville

By Leia Larsen | February 23, 2024, 5:01 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) A railroad causeway divides two halves of the Great Salt Lake, pictured Friday, Dec. 29, 2023.

Why the Great Salt Lake’s causeway may have staved off collapse more than once

By Leia Larsen | February 22, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) US Magnesium, seen across the Great Salt Lake from Stansbury Island on Saturday, March 26, 2022.

US Magnesium avoided paying millions for alleged air quality infractions and gave big donations to Utah lawmakers

By Leia Larsen | February 19, 2024, 4:05 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Eric Balken, the executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute, boats through Davis Gulch during a trip to Lake Powell near Ticaboo, Utah on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023.

Lake Powell bounces back — but for how long?

By Leia Larsen | February 12, 2024, 8:03 p.m.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Aerial photographs of Compass Minerals in Ogden, April 11, 2022. Compass Minerals produces salt, plant nutrients and magnesium chloride for appilcation primarily in North America. Ogden's 55,000-acre solar evaporation pond complex produces salt, sulfate of potash and magnesium chloride from the Great Salt Lake.

Mineral companies use 7% of Great Salt Lake’s water. Here’s how a bill would change their business.

By Leia Larsen | February 9, 2024, 10:14 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Irrigation in Moab on Thursday, July 15, 2021.

Utah looks to other states for more water under new bill

By Leia Larsen | February 9, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) James Kirkland, right, the Utah state paleontologist, and Bill Keach, the state geologist, explain the significance of the Utahraptor megablock at the core center for the Utah Department of Natural Resources in Salt Lake City on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. The 9-ton piece of rock contains more than a dozen raptor skeletons that date back 135 million years, but state resource managers are having trouble securing funding to excavate the fossils.

Millions of dollars of dinosaur bones are stuck in rock. Will Utah pay to get them out?

By Leia Larsen | February 9, 2024, 10:12 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Bonneville Salt Flats, comprised of mostly sodium chloride that forms a hard, white salt crust and home to numerous land speed records, are covered in nine inches of water, forming a shallow lake on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. The flats are flooded with brine every winter in an effort to get them to regrow, but recent research found the experiment may make things worse.

Decadeslong effort to regrow Utah’s vanishing salt flats may have backfired

By Leia Larsen | February 5, 2024, 2:42 p.m.

(106 Reforestation) This image from a promotional video shows how a Utah company called 106 Reforestation bulldozes overgrown forests on the Tavaputs Plateau with the hope of restoring aspen that have been crowded out by subalpine fir and other conifers. The Utah Legislature has appropriated $4.4 million dollars since 2019 to promote the experimental forest treatments as a way to enhance stream flows.

Private interests ask for more Utah taxpayer money to ‘roller fell’ forests, lobby against wolves

By Leia Larsen | February 2, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Lake is pictured on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.

Lawmakers turn to Utah Lake to help rescue Great Salt Lake. Will dredging be part of the solution?

By Leia Larsen | February 1, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

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