This is your daily news rundown for Thursday, Feb. 12. In this edition:
- A permit lottery for one of Zion's most popular hikes opens on Friday
- Multiple solutions are needed to tackle Great Salt Lake dust, a study found
- A lawsuit to block Utah's new congressional map has legislative support
Permits for Zion’s Angels Landing hike open on Friday
Visitors will have the chance to win a permit for one of Zion’s most popular but strenuous hikes starting on Friday.
Angels Landing is a 5.4-mile round-trip hike that brings hikers almost 1,500 feet higher by the end, featuring steep drop-offs all along the trail.
It requires a permit, and because of issues with congestion and crowding, the park gives those permits out through a lottery system.
There are four rounds of in-advance permit lotteries:
- Feb. 13-25 — for hikes between March 1 and May 31
- April 1-20 — for hikes between June 1 and Aug. 31
- July 1-20 — for hikes between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30
- Oct. 1-20 — for hikes between Dec. 1, 2026 and Feb. 28, 2027
Hikers can also apply for a permit the day before a planned hike.
For more info on the Angels Landing hike and obtaining a permit, visit the National Park Service’s website.
No single solution can solve Great Salt Lake’s dust, study finds
There are several ways to tackle toxic dust from Great Salt Lake, a new study found — but all come with a cost, and none can solve the problem on their own.
Currently, over 800 square miles of Great Salt Lake’s lakebed is exposed, leading to dust storms that can blow into communities and create public health concerns.
The study, published on Thursday by the University of Utah’s Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy, evaluated 12 dust control measures, ranging from applying chemical dust suppressants to wetting the exposed lakebed to make particles less likely to blow away.
Researchers found that no measure was a universal fix, and while measures dependent on water were better at controlling dust, they were also more expensive and could be difficult to sustain with Utah’s limited water supply.
Different measures also cost wildly different amounts, with total project costs ranging from $3.1 billion to over $31 billion — and that’s if the amount of exposed lakebed doesn't get bigger.
A lawsuit to block Utah’s new congressional map now has legislative support
The Utah State Legislature formalized its support on Wednesday for a lawsuit that seeks to block the state’s new congressional map.
The lawsuit was filed by several Republican political leaders, including Congressional representatives Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens.
In a tiebreaker vote within the state’s Legislative Management Committee, lawmakers approved a “friend of the court” brief, which is filed by a party that isn’t involved with the case but supports one side or another.
A hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for next week.
