Overview

For thousands of years, Great Salt Lake has played a surprisingly central role in the lives of humans and animals throughout the American West and across entire continents. Once a destination for wellness seekers, the lake's alarming disappearance is already affecting skiing, tourism, and the region's economic future. As humans continue to divert its waters for agriculture and mine its marshlands for industry, Great Salt Lake could vanish entirely within five years. A refuge for more than 330 species of migrating birds, the lake also keeps vast swathes of the western United States habitable by keeping naturally occurring arsenic, toxic dust, and other health hazards trapped safely in the earth. The Once and Future Lake brings together nature writers, scientists, and storytellers to reveal the beauty of this complex ecosystem and to proclaim a future where Great Salt Lake will once again thrive--as long as we act before it's too late. Through essay, story, and poetry, these writers show how intertwined the lake's fate is with our own and that restoring and rewilding Great Salt Lake is possible, practical, ambitious, and essential.

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9798890920096

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Reviews

""A moving tribute. The soul of our state and its beating heart is Great Salt Lake. Gathered here are some of the voices who have known and loved the lake through generations and others who are meeting the lake for the first time. If you haven't spent time there, read this book and then GO! Or better yet, take this book with you and read it while you look for snowy plover and Wilson Phalarope."" --ANNE HOLMAN, The King's English Bookshop ​ ""A thoughtfully compiled collection. It is something bigger, deeper, and wilder than could be imagined--a collective story tinged delicately by hope that may only be realized in its being shared."" --NOAH BASKETT, Salt Lake City Public Library ​""The Great Salt Lake is one of the strangest, most wondrous, and mysterious places on the planet. It has been revered and abused. Its immensity often obliterates attempts to capture it in text or in art; words can be woefully inadequate in the face of its sublimity. And yet, this poignant and heartfelt collection of essays and poems brings the Great Salt Lake to life for its readers."" --JONATHAN P. THOMPSON, Sagebrush Empire ​ ""A buoyant collection and a pressing call-to-action. Like the rivers of the Great Basin, these essays, poems, and stories pour past city lawns and alfalfa fields toward the unassuming Great Salt Lake, begging us to see its beauty and recognize its many inhabitants--before it's too late."" --ZAK PODMORE, Life After Dead Pool ​""Contributors to The Once and Future Lake invite us to their beloved lake so we can all envision a healthier future for her--and for the rest of the more-than-human world, too."" --LAURA PASKUS, editor of Water Bodies ​""The Once and Future Lake is a demonstration of love for Great Salt Lake. Read it to learn and be inspired. Read it for solace and hope. Read it to find the connections between us and the lake."" --DEEDA SEED, Senior Utah Campaigner, Center for Biological Diversity

Author Information

Michael McLane (editor) is the author of multiple chapbooks, poems, and essays with publications in journals and anthologies in four different countries. He serves as a poetry editor for Dark Mountain and review editor for Sugar House Review. McLane is from Salt Lake City, Utah, and lives in New Zealand.

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