The World's Most Beautiful Places
A sign warning of a buried fiber optic cable on an empty residential lot in growing neighborhood in the western United States (Utah). The sign instructs one to call 811 for information on buried utilities in the area. 811 is a phone number hotline established by law for anyone to call when planning digging or construction activities in an area.
A view of a dead carp fish from the Great Salt Lake in northern Utah. The Great Salt Lake, a small remnant of the much larger Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, is as the name suggests very salty, and mostly uninhabitable as far as fish are concerned, but all of the water that flows into the lake, comes from fresh water rivers, and springs that flow from the surrounding Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountain Ranges. This particular fish likely entered the Great Salt Lake from the Jordan River, which connects to Utah lake and receives fresh water from both ranges.
The survivability of carp near the edges of the Great Salt Lake has likely also impacted by a number of environmental issues, especially in the last decade. Including a decreasing flow of water to the lake as its diverted for agriculture and housing development, as well as hotter, drier summers due to climate change and drought. Increasing salinity, salt water intrusion, and pollution concentration as the lake has shrunk are also potential factors.
An artificial Great Blue Heron Rookery located at the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, on the the edge of the Great Salt Lake. North of Salt Lake City, Utah
The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands.
Every year from February to June, great blue herons nest in a rookery near the DWR’s George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Wildlife Education Center.