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Editor's note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake.
SALT LAKE CITY — A local church is joining efforts to get water to the Great Salt Lake.
The First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City announced during its service on Sunday that it collected $35,000 for the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust, the entity set up by the state last year to acquire water donations for the Great Salt Lake.
A large portion of the donation came from the estate of Naomi Franklin, a professor emerita at the University of Utah's School of Biological Sciences, who died in 2021 at age 92. The university wrote, at the time, that Franklin was an environmental activist on top of her educational career.
Church leaders also said Franklin was a "strong supporter" of its Environmental Ministry with an interest in air quality — one of the top concerns for the Great Salt Lake after it reached its lowest point on record in 2022. Her estate's donation helped inspire "several thousand dollars in additional donations" from other members, they added on Monday.
"It is our responsibility to care for and protect Great Salt Lake as she has cared for and protected so much of the vast ecosystem that has made Salt Lake City such a wonderful place to live," said Salt Lake's First Unitarian Church's the Rev. J Sylvan.
The announcement comes as local religious leaders have joined the efforts to get water to the Great Salt Lake in recent years. For example, a water donation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints covered a portion of 10,000 acre-feet of water released from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake this fall.
The church also donated 5,700 water shares last year, directing 20,000 acre-feet of water annually.
Marcelle Shoop, executive director of the state trust, said the latest donation — from the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City — will go toward the trust's efforts to acquire more water rights to help the lake. The lake's arms remain about 5.4 to 6.2 feet below the lake's minimum healthy level.
"We are grateful for this generous gift that will help galvanize the efforts of the trust to secure voluntary water transactions to bring water to Great Salt Lake and its wetlands," she said in a statement on Monday.
First Unitarian Church leaders say they're glad to contribute to the cause but know more work is needed to solve the lake's woes.
On top of the donation, the Environmental Ministry published a checklist of items earlier this year that people can do to help get water to the lake. Most of the items centered around attending events to voice concerns about the lake.
"It is our honor to be able to make this gift to ensure water will flow into Great Salt Lake, but is only a drop in comparison to what we need to maintain a healthy, thriving lake," the Rev. Sylvan added. "However, if more faith communities and other small organizations join us in donating what they can, we could make a significant difference."
