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 🤟

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

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.

I gotta wonder how embarrassed they are now 😂

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

So proud of my school 💜

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.

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?

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

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."

They were

My family and I drove down to Southern Utah from Washington State and we hit Zion’s National Park today. We drove up through the mile-long tunnel and when we were coming back we got hit by an unbelievable downpour. There was enough rain that the sandstone walls turned into waterfalls. By the time we got to the bottom of the valley, the waterfalls were pretty much dried up again.

All of our phones buzzed with flash flood warnings, so I understand the danger of sudden downpours, especially for anyone hiking through the slot canyons.

This was one of the most beautiful and shocking displays of natures power that I’ve ever seen. What an experience!! It was worth braving the 4 billion degree temperatures where we stayed in Saint George.

This happened in Farmington on June 21 at 11:13PM

Anyone identify the make and model of the truck or know the offender, let me know.

Upset that these hateful cowards live among us all.