Utah State University’s Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air released its fifth report to the governor and legislature this week.
“The idea of the report is that we are working to take so much work that's being done at Utah State and all across the state on land, water, and air issues," said Anna McEntire, the managing director of USU's Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air, "so many people who dedicate months or years to really specific projects to help different aspects of Utah's land, water, and air."
Each year, the report contains five chapters, the first three highlighting Utah’s land, air, and water, while the other two are special topics that change year to year.
“As we know that we need more energy," McEntire said, "as it's become a statewide goal, we know that we need to understand what its impacts are on our water supply and our air quality and the way that we use our land... The other special topic chapter was on Utah's future, thinking about what we want our land, water, and air to look like over the next 5-10 years, or even longer.”
This year’s report also highlights the success of wildlife overpasses, a rise in the cut flower industry, the need for dam infrastructure upgrades, among many others.
The institute hosted an event on Oct. 16 in Salt Lake City to present the report to Governor Spencer Cox and state legislators, which included a faculty research panel, highlighting management of wildfire, earthquake risk, and Utah Lake invasive carp.
Additionally, the institute partnered with the Utah House of Representatives to present the Utah Water Pioneer Award.
“It was given to Jamie Barnes, who's the director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands," McEntire said, "one that we in the institute and many of us at the university have worked with and highly respect, and it was great to be able to cosign and give an applause to all of the great work that she's doing.”
Read the full report: https://www.usu.edu/ilwa/reports/2025/
