Note to readers • Each month I write a newsletter to subscribers. In 2025, we’re also sharing it here.
I was recently asked how The Salt Lake Tribune is covering the Trump administration.
There are journalists working from Washington, D.C., to Palm Beach, Florida, who are charged with keeping track of President Donald Trump.
Our job is to build an understanding of impacts here in Utah. As the state’s independent voice, every day we’re working to share what’s happening on the ground and to help you make sense of it.
As taxpayers, you are funding the programs and the people who are being cut, and you are the beneficiaries of the services they provide.
Take the Cedar City brothers who, with their father, welded steel kiosks for the Bureau of Land Management and are still waiting to be paid for $30,000 worth of work. Those kiosks house key information for those who use BLM land.
There are Veterans Affairs and IRS workers in Salt Lake City and Ogden who lost their jobs. And impact of cuts to the U.S. Forest Service team in Moab on trails and fire safety. And cuts to federal funding for research at the University of Utah and elsewhere. While many cuts have moved to the courts, withheld wages and gaps in services have hit your neighbors, friends and family.
We’ll continue to focus on how Utahns are being affected, strengthening the record for this period in our history. We can do this only with your support.
Public lands
As we look to cover federal impacts here, I’m excited to share details about a new reporting project focused on Utah’s public lands. As you may know, the federal government owns more than 60% of Utah’s total land area, including more than 50% of land in 18 Utah counties. In 2024, federal land management agencies employed more than 3,000 Utahns, per the University of Utah’s Gardner Institute. There has been ongoing debate, and action in the courts, over who should oversee these lands.
This year, we’re asking visitors to state and federal lands to share their experiences with us. Show us your summer vacation or your spring break trip. We want to see that stunning twilight picture from Goblin Valley or the overflowing trash cans in Capitol Reef if staffing becomes an issue. Ranchers and park rangers use Utah’s public lands every day for work.
Help us celebrate the beauty that Utah has to offer and chronicle what’s happening on the ground by sharing the QR code below with those who are using public lands in the state.
Pocketbook issues
We’re also focusing more on the economy in 2025. If the presidential election was in part a referendum on how we feel about our ability to thrive where we live, we have to work harder to elevate Utahns’ concerns and opportunities as the cost of living here rises. We’ve formed an ad hoc team that’s meeting regularly to brainstorm about reporting related to our personal economies.
One question we’re asking readers now: How are you getting by? You can let us know by clicking here.
Joy!
Finally, we’re focusing on what we love about Utah. Tens of thousands of people saw our recent reporting on the anticipated reopening of Logan’s Bluebird Restaurant. And who knew a Utah connection to tater tots would get top billing during March Madness?
You can always count on The Tribune to do the accountability reporting that is so needed in Utah. But you can also look to us to round out your news diet with stories that deepen your appreciation for the places and things we love in the state.
As power continues to be centralized in the hands of a few, I am grateful for the many supporters who make The Tribune a leading statewide news source. It is you who make the work possible.
Thank you,
Lauren