Note to readers •This story is made possible through a partnership between The Salt Lake Tribune and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
A pint-sized shorebird is one step closer to receiving protections from the federal government, which could have big implications for how Utah manages the beleaguered Great Salt Lake.
A group of environmental advocates, artists and scientists petitioned the U.S. Department of Interior in March 2024 to list the Wilson’s phalarope as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The bird makes a remarkable migration across the Western Hemisphere. Flocks depend on stopovers like the Great Salt Lake to rest and refuel on their long journey across the North and South American continents.
But the lake’s long-term decline, along with the disappearance of saline lakes across the arid West, mean the birds have fewer and fewer places to go. The Great Salt Lake currently covers about half its historically normal surface area, according to assessments by state regulators. It hasn’t reached an annual average elevation in the healthy range since 2002.
On Friday, lake advocates pushing for the phalarope’s protection had reason to celebrate. The Interior Department announced it would advance the bird to its next stage of evaluation, making it one small step closer to endangered protections.
“We find that the petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information,” the department wrote in a 90-day review of 10 species, “indicating that listing the Wilson’s phalarope as a threatened or endangered species may be warranted.”
The birds eat invertebrates like brine flies and brine shrimp that thrive in hypersaline environments found at the Great Salt Lake, Mono Lake in California and Lake Abert in Oregon. Petitioners argued those ecosystems are under threat due to climate change, water consumption and habitat lost to mining.
“The Wilson’s phalarope is Great Salt Lake’s canary in the coal mine,” writer Terry Tempest Williams, one of the signatories to the petition, in a statement Friday. “As the lake shrinks, this tiny bird is a warning that what’s happening to the lake is happening to all of us.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Author Terry Tempest Williams speaks at a rally for the Wilson's phalarope on Oct. 1, 2025.
Other petitioners included environmental nonprofits Center for Biological Diversity, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Utah Youth Environmental Solutions and Mono Lake Committee. Academics like BYU ecology professor Ben Abbott, waterbird scientist Nathan Van Schmidt and biologist Ron Larson also signed.
An endangered or threatened species listings means the federal government will involve itself in state conservation plans. The Interior Department would also have the authority to fine or imprison people and water users who harm the phalaropes, even if it is unintentional.
In an email, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Natural Resources said its Division of Wildlife Resources is part of an International Phalarope Working Group that monitors the birds across their migration path.
“We are committed to continuing to monitor and research this species and to work with partners across its migratory range to maintain sustainable population levels,” the spokesperson wrote. “The State of Utah is committed to restoring and protecting the Great Salt Lake ecosystem and the birds that rely upon it.”
The Interior Department will now undertake further review to determine whether listing the Wilson’s phalarope is “not warranted, warranted, or warranted but precluded by pending proposals.”
“I’m thrilled these little birds are one step closer to the protection they so desperately need,” Deeda Seed, senior Utah campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in a statement, “and I’m hopeful this leads to real action to save the Great Salt Lake.”