‘Utah Lake is everyone’s lake’: Saratoga Springs residents pull tires from Utah Lake
Mar 19, 2025, 1:00 PM
Saratoga Springs residents pulling tires out of Utah Lake. (Tye Bratton)
(Tye Bratton)
SALT LAKE CITY — People in Saratoga Springs helped pull out 21 tires from Utah Lake, with some of the tires weighing over 1,000 pounds.
Tye Bratton has lived in Saratoga Springs for 15 years.
He said he noticed the tires during low-water years. He thinks they were put in decades ago to support the dikes to help prevent flooding but some of them are getting dislodged by storms.
“A good friend of mine, he actually did about $15,000 in damage to his wake surf boat when he hit one of these tires a couple years ago.”
Removing the tires
Bratton said last fall, he applied for permits with state government agencies before heading out with a team of residents and a mini excavator nearly a month ago to pull out tires.
“Some of the tires came out really easily,” Bratton explained, “they were just right there on the surface. A couple of tires, I actually had to don some scuba diving gear and drop down into the channel. You could only see about a foot in front of you so I had to just kind of sweep my arms around and just slowly swim out until we found a tire.”
He said his HOA paid to rent an excavator to help with the project. Bratton said some of the tires took over an hour to pull out of the lake.
“My son is 6 foot tall and there’s a couple of photos of the tires dwarfing him. Some of the tires were about 7 feet in diameter. Some of them were 2 and a half feet across. Some of them weighed over 1,000 pounds.”
Tye Bratton’s son next to one of the tires they pulled out of Utah Lake. (Tye Bratton)
‘Utah Lake is everyone’s lake’
The Utah Lake Authority said they are grateful for Bratton and his team.
Communications and Event Manager Kelly Cannon O’Day with the Utah Lake Authority said Bratton and his team did the project all on their own.
“It was just so great to see Utahns and especially people who live on the lake kind of take the initiative to help keep it clean and keep it nice,” said Cannon O’Day, “so we wanted to thank them for doing this service project and for taking ownership of their lake because Utah Lake is everyone’s lake.”
Bratton estimates there are 19 more tires in the lake but is planning to wait for another low-water year to pull the rest out.
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