On the River: Back to the Future: Utah Lake Kayaking

Utah Lake has been through the gamut. It has supported life for many Cultures and communities throughout the ages. Stories of fish festivals and gatherings of early native american communities partook of the lakes glorious bounty. Today it has only two remaining original fish species left from the original seventeen species from the early 1800 when european settlers arrived in the valley. The June sucker and the Utah sucker. The June sucker was added to the Endangered Species List in 1986 – its numbers have gone from millions in the early 1800s, to a population of less than 1,000 remaining today.

(https://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/search/Display.asp?FlNm=chaslior)

”Indeed, so great was the number of suckers and mullets passing continuously upstream that often the river would be full from bank to bank as thick as they could swim for hours and sometimes days together.” — George Washington Bean, 1854.

I don't know how we can get back to the past when early settlers could grab fish with there hands and gather as many as you could carry. However, I believe there is a future for the third largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River and it has a 6.4 billion dollar price tag.

(http://utahlakerestoration.com)

The plan includes 50 story high rise buildings, high end real estate, recreational islands and special islands to cover the cost of saving and rebuilding habitat. In the end the lake will be deeper making the water much more clear with less evaporation loss. The lake right now has a 41 percent evaporation loss making the water slightly high on the saline level. The water retention should give much better flow to Utah Lakes only outlet, The Jordan River. That is an exciting thought to a kayaker. I can already picture myself exploring the safe passage of the outside of Utah Lake's estuary islands and maybe someday kayaking down the Spanish Fork river, into and across Utah Lake, up the Jordan river and finishing on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake.