Birds Need Friends in High Places The Legacy Highway Will Have Lake Effect
by Mark Gerard
Utah's busiest airport is north of Salt Lake International's runways. It's the east shore of the Great Salt Lake -- where the Bear, Weber, and Jordan rivers pour fresh water into briny marshland -- that witnesses the arrival and departure of millions of frequent flyers each year. This east shore is an oasis for more than two hundred species of birds, including huge flocks that rest and refuel here on their annual migratory marathons.
For 10,000 years, a significant number of the Western Hemisphere's shorebirds and waterfowl have depended on this complex of wetlands to rest, nest, breed, or to feed. Although the Great Salt Lake is enormous, 1,500 sqare miles, the overwhelming majority of birds visit the east shore because it is flushed by runoff from the Wasatch Front.
Unfortunately, in the past 100 years the east shore is where humans have begun to congregate in huge numbers too. With only a narrow strip of land between the Wasatch Mountains and the lake, human sprawl is poised to change forever one of the most important wildlife habitats in the Western Hemisphere.
Staggering numbers of birds have been counted by scientists on the Great Salt Lake's east shore -- congregations of a half-million Wilson's phaleropes, a quarter-million American Avocets, a million Northern Pintail ducks, for example. And it hosts the wold's largest concentrations of several species of birds that spend half their year migrating between breeding grounds in North America and wintering areas in South America.
But whopping bird counts are just figures on a page. To get a sense of the wealth of wildlife Utah hosts, take a trip to the east shore's Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Here, you drive out onto the Great Salt Lake's freshwater marshes on 12 miles of narrow dikes. On either side, you see hundreds of floating birds, such as tundra swans and grebes. In the shallow water you see scores of spindley-legged shorebirds, like herons and ibis, feeding and fussing with each other.
Roll down your car windows and the racket is a PBS nature show in Surround Sound. Blackbirds screech, stilts weep, avocets peep--and when hundreds of ducks take off together, the beating of wings on water rumbles like a passing freight train. Overhead, squadrons of pelicans glide wingtip-to-wingtip in aerial tai chi; their wide bodies a snowy white and their bucket-beaks are traffic-cone orange.
In a patch of refuge mud flat no larger than a living room, you can watch a half-dozen birds of different species feeding side-by-side. An avocet will sweep its upcurved bill like a sickle through the shallow water; a dowitcher probes the muck with a knitting-needle beak, while a Wilson's phalarope spins in circles on the water, stirring up a grub then stabbing at it.
Each type of bird workss this Great Salt Lake buffet with different tools. The wide variety of food here -- everything from minnows, water bugs, and larvae, to clouds of midges -- is one reason that the east shore draws such a wide variety of wildlife. Wetlands such as these are second only to rainforests in the number and variety of species they support.
Today, a string of preserves like the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge dot the Great Salt Lake's eastern shore, protecting fragments of its wetlands. But these are not enough to support the proffusion of wildlife that depends on it. The birds need marshes, mud flats, and fields in continuous open space, uncut by roads. These wide-open spaces support huge breeding flocks, and it's this wide genetic base -- a deep gene pool -- that will keep these types of birds off the Endangered Species List for the foreseeable future. In addition, the Great Salt Lake's birds need uninterrupted water flows from Wasatch rivers and creeks.
But non-game wildlife needs are low priority to local politicians. The state of Utah plans to dam the Bear River, essentially so that Salt Lakers can water their bluegrass lawns through the next millennium. Additionally, Gov. Leavitt intends to pave a four-lane highway through prime east shore wetlands -- though less damaging routes are available -- so car commuters won't have slowdowns during rush hour in Davis County.
But these kinds of habitat loss are a death sentence for wildlife. "This is the last of the best habitat for these birds," says Al Trout, manager of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. "There are no other places of this size and quality for them to go. Some will attempt to go other places, but whenever they go to new places, that's when they suffer their highest mortality. A lot don't survive." Competing birds are already using all other available habitat that displaced birds may finds, say biologists, and they defend their territory against newcomers.
A natural water flow is critical for Great Salt Lake birds as well. "Our main concern with the Bear River dam is the amount of water reduction that will occur," said Trout. "The natural cycle we need is lots of runoff in May and June. This flushes the salt out of the wetlands and makes them productive for the ducks and the shorebirdss that depend on them."
Altering the natural water cycle and reducing wetlands on the Great Salt Lake's eastern shore spell trouble for its migratory birds. These epic avian journeys are only possible if all the links -- stopovers -- in the chain are available. Migrating birds won't survive without each link in place.
For Davis County commuters, fifteen miles of slow auto traffic during rush hour is annoying, but compare it to the trek of a migrating Wilson's phalerope. Most of the world's population of Wilson's phaleropes depend on doubling their weight at the Great Salt Lake's brine shrimp buffet each June and July in order to fly 3,000 miles -- 60 hours nonstop -- to Argentina, Chile or Peru. The effort, researchers say, is comparable to a human running four-minute miles for 60 hours...now that's a commute.
How to Get There
Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is on the northeast shore of the Great Salt Lake. Take Exit 366 (Forest Street) off I-15 at Brigham City, go west 15 miles. It's open every day, sunrise to sunset. For more information, contact Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, 866 South Main, Brigham City, Utah, 84302. (435)723-5887
Speak Up
Call or write Gov. Leavitt and tell him a highway through prime wetlands is a loony legacy to leave. Tell him you're willing to conserve water so you don't support damming the Bear River. You can reach Mark Gerard at mghenge@xmission.com
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