Secrets Of Great Salt Lake Brings Urgent Environmental Story To The Giant Screen
Secrets of the Great Salt Lake will showcase the remarkable story of the lake's formation and its ... More importance to the people and wildlife of Utah.
Utah's Great Salt Lake is drying up, foretelling a dire future for residents of Salt Lake City and the surrounding region if something isn't done soon to reverse the lake's decline. An unprecedented coalition of state leaders, agencies, conservation organizations, foundations and private philanthropists have assembled to head off what some are warning could be an environmental disaster on a scale America hasn't seen since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
A key part of that effort is to make people across Utah and the globe aware of Great Salt Lake's importance and the urgent need to save it. After nearly two years in production, Secrets of Great Salt Lake is set for release in giant screen theaters worldwide, including a destination theater and interpretive center currently under construction at Utah's Antelope Island State Park located near Salt Lake City.
It is estimated that Great Salt Lake has seen an 11-foot drop since the late 19th century.
The 3-D film was produced by Denver-based Mission Partners Entertainment Group and is narrated by Mike Rowe with support from the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation and wetlands conservation leader Ducks Unlimited. Toronto-based SK Films will handle distribution of the film to giant screen theaters worldwide in multiple languages, and Secrets was directed by Tyler Mifflin.
The film is part of a broad communications and educational effort that includes a television series as well as short form content and curriculum that will be distributed to more than 10,000 US schools through the world's largest conservation education portal.
A team of the world's best cinematographers have created an indelible portrait of one of North ... More America's most remarkable natural wonders.
'It's not just about creating a film,' says McGraw's President and CEO Charlie Potter, who also serves as one of the film's executive producers, 'it's about igniting a movement to save the lake.'
Great Salt Lake once spanned 1,700-square miles but has dropped nearly 50 percent. Of nine saline lakes found in the American West, more than half have withered from 50 to 95 percent of their earliest recorded levels. None is more important than Great Salt Lake, and the struggle to save it is emblematic of the growing demand for water across the globe. The world's human population has nearly doubled since 1980 and with that growth has come exponential demand for water. For Great Salt Lake and all the people and wildlife that benefit from it, the clock is ticking.
Narrator Mike Rowe has been named by Forbes as one of the Country's 10 Most Trustworthy Celebrities ... More multiple times.
'We see this as a chance to highlight the incredible effort underway to save an invaluable ecosystem,' says Antonietta Monteleone, CEO of Mission Partners. 'Our purpose is to empower conservation through powerful storytelling and engaging media.'
Great Salt Lake and the businesses that depend on it are the economic engine sustaining much of Utah's health and wealth. Direct industries derived from the lake--including commercial fishing, mining and recreation--bring in more than $1 billion a year in net economic output. The lake also provides the key moisture behind the state's world-renowned billion-dollar ski industry and supports other forms of outdoor recreation, creating a massive economic driver for the state. Most importantly, Great Salt Lake makes life in much of Utah possible. With so much of the lakebed now exposed, its naturally occurring arsenic and mercury--two well-known carcinogens—are swept up in periodic dust storms that now befall the region.
Artist's rendering of the giant screen theater being built on Utah's Antelope Island.
Beyond the lake as a sustainable economic force, it is one of the most important migratory bird habitats found in the western United States. The lake is home to most of the wetlands found in Utah and is a federally managed bird refuge. The adjacent 74,000-acre Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge was founded in 1928 and is a key nesting and migratory bird stopover area for millions of ducks, geese, cranes, swans and myriad shorebirds that traverse the Pacific and Central flyways.
The production team launches a drone equipped with an 8K camera over Great Salt Lake.
'Great Salt Lake is a uniquely beautiful place. It draws millions of people to Utah each year and is vital not only to tourism but also to our quality of life. It's critical to the environment, ecology and economy, not just in Utah but across the western U.S.,' says Joel Ferry, head of the state's Department of Natural Resources, the agency responsible for the film effort along with the associated destination theater and interpretive center that's set to open early 2026.
'We know we're on the clock,' says Potter, 'and the state is moving with extraordinary resolve to sustain the lake before it's too late.'
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Boston Globe
17 minutes ago
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Sacha Jenkins, filmmaker who mined the Black experience, dies at 53
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Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Why cozy content is king for stressed-out young adults
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards exhibit opens at Springfield Museums
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The competition for which the exhibit is named, the Comedy Wildlife Awards, describes its mission as 'conservation through competition' on its website. The awards are co-hosted by wildlife photographers Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, who also co-founded the awards in 2015. It all began when Joynson-Hicks, who has lived in East Africa for the past 30 years, took the time to slow down and really look at the photos he was taking. In doing so, he noticed just how relatable animals could be. In a statement on the competition's website, Joynson-Hicks said, 'To really understand animals and the issues that affect them, you need to empathize with them as fellow inhabitants of the same planet.' The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, which has expanded over the years to welcome thousands of entries internationally, donates a portion of its proceeds to the Whitley Fund for Nature, a United Kingdom-based charity that supports conservation leaders across the global south. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than 47,000 species are being threatened with extinction as of this year. That breaks down to 41% of amphibians, 27% of mammals, 34% of conifers, 12% of birds, 37% of sharks and rays, 44% of reef corals, 28% of crustaceans, 21% of reptiles and 71% of cycads under this threat. While conservation awareness and fundraising are its primary goals, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards do aim to fulfill a second purpose: making people smile. 'The photographs are as beautiful as they are humorous, so I hope visitors also come away with a sense of appreciation for the natural world around us as well as a closer connection to nature's creatures after sharing some laughs,' Ludwig said. The photographs on display at the Springfield Museums are winners from across the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards' 10-year run. Among them is 'Smile!' which shows a marsh frog leaping out of the water with a big grin, and 'Squirrel Wishes,' which depicts a Eurasian Red Squirrel blowing on a dandelion. Just like the competition itself, the photos on display at the Springfield Museums span the globe, with photographers from across Italy, Sweden, Australia and Russia — just to name a few — being represented. 'As diverse as the photographers are, the locations they traveled to capture these images is even more expansive and includes exotic locals like the Falkland Islands, the Bahamas, and Namibia as well as some more close to home, like Staten Island, New York, proving that animal comedy could be hiding in your own backyard,' Ludwig said. In some cases, the photos capture animals that are now considered 'critically endangered' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, such as the Verreaux's Sifaka, a lemur species native to Madagascar. In Alison Buttigieg's photograph from 2015, 'Staying Alive!,' the lemur is captured mid-hop with one arm raised. Since that time, deforestation and illegal hunting has driven down the Verreaux's Sifaka population, and their status was officially updated from 'vulnerable' to 'critically endangered' in 2020. Asked what his favorite photograph is in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards exhibit, Ludwig said the answer was 'difficult.' 'One of the most wholesome is certainly 'The Laughing Dormouse' by Andrea Zampatti,' he said. 'The tiny mouse is perched in a flower with its eyes squinting and an expression of pure happiness — you can almost imagine it letting out a little squeak of joy.' Down the hall, the Springfield Museums offers plenty of additional opportunities for animal lovers of all ages to learn more. 'Whiskers and Whimsy: Animals in Currier & Ives Prints,' a collection of more than 1,200 lithographs that depict fuzzy and feathered animals is on display in the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts. 'Habitat,' on loan from the Smithsonian Institution, is installed throughout the museum grounds and depicts the many different environments that animals call home. In the Springfield Science Museum, visitors can also visit the newly renovated Live Animal Center. 'Here Be Dragons,' also at the Springfield Science Museum, brings visitors face-to-face with live reptiles. For more information about the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards and other ongoing exhibits at the Springfield Museums, visit the Museums' website. Read the original article on MassLive.
