Finding My Voice in the Great Salt Lake Basin
Photo of the 2025-26 NRWD cohort of fellows after our initial meeting in Logan, UT.
Growing up in a small farming town in southeast Idaho, Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics felt like the center of the universe. I remember the thrill of watching the events on TV, knowing I had been to several of the venues and hoping that one day, I would be in the stands. Flashforward two decades: Salt Lake City has been announced to host the Winter Olympics in 2034, but the viability of having the Winter Olympics may be in jeopardy as the Great Salt Lake shrinks in size.
Map of a uniformly irrigated alfalfa field over three harvests. This map shows what areas of the field could receive less or more irrigation to improve the crop water productivity (biomass yield/water used).
Hammond et al. 2025
Before beginning my PhD at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, I was doing research on precision agriculture in Utah. My research focused on helping farmers get the most “crop per drop” of irrigation applied, and I thought I understood the challenges facing the Great Salt Lake.
When I was accepted into the Natural Resources Workforce Development (NRWD) fellowship, I was ready to dive head-first into our “Functional Flow for Wildlife and Water Quality” project, a mission to balance ecological needs with human water use. However, once I arrived in Logan, UT for our in-person training I started to have doubts about how much I could contribute to the project. Surrounded by incredibly confident, charismatic, and driven researchers, I wondered if my perspective was the one needed for this project.
After our initial meeting, and having talked with past NRWD fellows about common pitfalls they experienced, I found myself weighted down by the magnitude of working with other researchers. I found myself waiting for others to take the lead and caught myself thinking, “How do we decide which direction to go with the project?” and “Why can’t we just think the same way and get this done quickly?” Then it hit me: if everyone thought the same way, the science would suffer. True science is built upon collaboration from people all with different perspectives. I realized that the weight I felt from the project wasn’t a burden, but the necessary friction of true collaboration. Each of the fellows adds a unique perspective to the project, and combining those viewpoints will result in more widespread application of our research.
As this fellowship continues, I’ve moved past my initial doubts, recognizing that bridging the gap between complex research and public action requires every one of our unique voices. By leaning into this collaboration, we aren’t just studying a shrinking lake; we are working to ensure its future. I look forward to seeing this work come to fruition, hopefully from the stands of a snow-covered stadium in 2034.
This post was written by Keegan Hammond, a 2025-26 NRWD Fellow from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).