If you want to join in, they are heading up to the Capitol now in SLC

I live next to an alfalfa farm this shit pissed me off so bad this morning. What a fuckin waste! Not to mention the amount they dump every day on the walking path here.

Can't wait to hear about how I should conserve water and pray for rain this summer!! Hail Satan 🤟

I cant believe im paying $110 for a full tank of gas, i have a trip planned to near salina soon im gonna die of poverty or something.

This photo was taken in Layton, just off the West Davis Corridor. The dust cloud from the lake bed ended up hitting around Farmington.

The ecological collapse of the GSL is real and apparent now. Not in the future. Now.

I gotta wonder how embarrassed they are now 😂

So proud of my school 💜

Utah should not allow the Mega Data Center poison and consume our drinking water nor cook our state.

The fact we still don't have laws in place for monstrosities like this in this state is ridiculous. But I know, I know, we have to think of the data centers and the billionaires.

Edit: My wife took the photo in the passenger seat while I was driving. I should have included that originally.

No, they are not blocking the road. I know it looks like that. Lots and lots of cars honking in support. Afterwards, they went back to class. These aren't slackers just skipping school. I'm so proud of them.

This is just plain ignorant. You can’t get in and out of the only door without having to navigate this moron. In a chair or have mobility challenges? This guy don’t care and neither does his company, apparently!

"Stop calling us fascists! Also, we fantasize about murdering anti-fascists."

Saw this yesterday going southbound. Weaved multiple times in and out of the double white of the carpool lane, he was only one in the car, plate says "private" and smaller print on plate says "no drivers license nor insurance required to operate this vehicle"

It took three minutes to drive around. The next chapter in Utah's dark history of internment is beginning.

They were

I live near the Capitol, and in the past two weeks there have been three separate fires close enough that I could smell smoke from my house.
That got me thinking.

A few weeks ago, I made a post about the Great Salt Lake because I wanted to understand where the water was actually going and what was causing the lake to shrink.

Now I’m wondering if wildfire belongs in that same conversation.

Not because the Great Salt Lake is directly causing fires.

But because both issues seem connected to a bigger picture:

Drier conditions
Invasive grasses
Water management
Air quality
Land management
Development pushing into foothill areas
And how prepared we are for the environmental challenges Utah is facing

One thing I’ve learned is that cheatgrass and other invasive grasses have dramatically changed fire behavior across the West. They grow quickly, dry out early, and turn entire hillsides into fuel.

Another thing I’ve learned is that Utah’s own wildfire reports acknowledge that fire risk is increasing and that the state now requires year-round readiness rather than treating wildfire as a seasonal problem.
And before someone inevitably comments, “These fires were caused by homeless people/tweakers, not drought,” I think it’s important to separate two different questions:

**What starts a fire?**
and
**What allows a fire to become a major event?**

Those aren’t necessarily the same thing.
A person can start a fire.
A landscape determines whether that fire stays small or spreads.

If someone drops a match in a wet field, you get one outcome.
If someone drops a match into drought-stressed vegetation surrounded by dry invasive grasses, you get a very different outcome.

So even if every recent fire was started by a person, I don’t think that answers the bigger question.
The question I’m interested in is:
**Why are our landscapes becoming so vulnerable to ignition in the first place?**

Because removing one person doesn’t automatically remove the conditions that allowed the fire to spread.
That’s why I think wildfire deserves to be part of the same conversation as drought, invasive grasses, water management, ecosystem health, and the future of the Great Salt Lake.

One thing that also surprised me is how much of the conversation seems to focus on response rather than prevention.

Why aren’t we talking more about fuel reduction?
Why aren’t we talking more about invasive species management?
Why aren’t we talking more about targeted grazing programs?

This isn’t some crazy idea. Communities throughout the West already use goats and sheep to reduce dry vegetation and wildfire risk. In some places it’s cheaper, safer, and more environmentally friendly than heavy mechanical clearing.

If we know invasive grasses are turning foothills into kindling, why aren’t we investing more energy into removing the fuel before the next fire starts?

And another question I keep coming back to:
Why does it feel like many of these conversations happen after a fire starts?

During one of the recent fires, I watched neighbors discussing evacuation plans while none of us even received any alert of the fire that was happening in our neighborhood.

That doesn’t mean firefighters weren’t working hard. They absolutely were.

But it did make me wonder:

What does wildfire preparedness actually look like for Salt Lake City in 2026?
Are our alert systems where they need to be?
Are we investing enough in prevention?
Are we building the capacity we’ll need if these conditions continue?

The more I learn, the less I see the Great Salt Lake crisis, drought, wildfire risk, air quality, wildlife loss, and public health as separate issues.

They all seem connected.
I don’t have all the answers.
I’m genuinely asking.
Because I love this place.
I grew up here, left for years, and never thought I’d move back.
But when I did, I remembered how much I love these mountains, these trails, these birds, this weird desert ecosystem, and this city.

The Great Salt Lake got me paying attention.
The fires made me realize how connected everything really is.

I’d love to hear from firefighters, ecologists, foresters, wildlife biologists, land managers, emergency managers, and anyone else who knows more about this than I do.

What should Utah be doing now—not after the next fire starts—to prepare for the summers ahead?