Wednesday May 14, 2025
Salt Lake City Tribune —
Airplanes and birds don’t mix. So why did the federal government pay millions to renovate and restore wildlife habitat less than a mile from Provo’s bustling airport?
It all started with a fish. Large with wide-set eyes and a mouth that works like a vacuum, the June sucker is unique to Utah, only found in the Provo River and Utah Lake.
Utah Lake, though, long had a reputation of being “gross,”said Luke Peterson, executive director of the Utah Lake Authority. It wasmuddied by invasive carp and polluted by contaminants, its surrounding ecosystem siphoned off as tributaries were rerouted either for irrigation or to eliminate flood plains.
And it wasn’t a good place for the June sucker, which the Environmental Protection Agency labeled “endangered” nearly 30 years ago. Thus began the $50-million Provo River Delta Restoration Project in 2020.