“The choices we make over the next few months will affect our state and ecosystems throughout the West for decades to come.”The Great Salt Lake, plagued by excessive water use and a worsening climate crisis, has dropped to record-low levels two years in a row.The lake is now 19 feet below its natural average level and has entered “uncharted territory” after losing 73% of its water and exposing 60% of its lakebed, the report notes.The lake is mostly lakebed right now.”With the climate getting hotter and drier, many lakes across the West will only see more evaporation, more demand for water, and just ultimate decline in levels.We could instead just hold it in reservoirs, divert it and use it for kind of business-as-usual in the coming year — and that would be a huge missed opportunity.”The report’s authors are calling on the governor’s office to declare a state of emergency, or at the very least, implement emergency water conservation measures that would not only reduce water use but ensure that the water makes it to the lake to replenish it — a huge task given that water planning and allocation for the state takes place in February and March.While officials have discussed different strategies to increase the lake’s levels – including building pipelines, using cloud-seeding technology or even groundwater extraction – the report’s authors urge lawmakers to instead focus on ramping up conservation efforts, noting it is the “most cost-effective and resilient response” to restore the lake."