Restoring biodiversity to wetlands sites in Salt Lake

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City’s Public Lands Department is working to restore biodiversity in five wetlands sites along the Jordan River Watershed. 

Their employees are actively working to bring back native plants that have all but gone extinct in the Salt Lake Valley. In some cases, local plant life is disappearing because of expanded housing and community development.

Their wetlands biodiversity project began by searching for the seeds of these now-rare native species.

“There’s books that come from a hundred years ago from ecologists in the Salt Lake Valley,” said Tyler Murdock, deputy director of Salt Lake City’s Public Lands Department.

“We have 3,000 different plant species throughout the valley (listed in the books). We don’t typically see that many species in a lot of our riparian and wetland areas.”

Growing the wetlands by growing biodiversity

The next step is to grow the seeds in greenhouses. Some of which were placed in Utah prisons in partnership with the Utah Department of Corrections.

“This year we’ll probably grow around 40- to 50-thousand native plants at the University of Utah greenhouse,” said Murdock. “And so right now if you were to visit that site you would see about four greenhouse bays full of a variety of wetland plants.”

The plants will then be planted at five sites along the Jordan River watershed.

Other reading:

• Myrtle spurge removal treatments happening this spring, fall
• Be in the know, Summit County: which weeds have to go?
• Lower Great Salt Lake water level may help fight phragmites