Utah Department of Natural Resources

08/05/2026

08/03/2026

Think the recent large rainstorms have taken Utah out of a drought? Think again.

07/31/2026

This is Blayke Noyes, Sergeant with the Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division. We appreciate his passion for safeguarding our natural resources and the people who visit them.

07/30/2026

Stay tuned to this page to see how the Office of the Great Salt Lake Commissioner is using $50M from the Bureau of Reclamation to make real improvements and deliver more water to Great Salt Lake.

07/28/2026

Did you know Utah is the world’s leading source of beryllium?
This lightweight, ultra-strong metal is critical for missiles, satellites, aircraft, and other aerospace technologies. The Spor Mountain mining district in Juab County supplies an estimated 65–85% of the world’s beryllium, including material used for the gold-plated mirrors on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
With global supply concentrated in one location, Utah’s beryllium resources play a vital role in national security, aerospace innovation, and the future of space exploration.

07/25/2026

This week, the Great Salt Lake Commissioner's Office presented to Mayor Dawn Ramsey and the South Jordan City Council about working to support municipal partners in exploring water conservation opportunities. Engaging with municipal conservation leaders helps us understand potential options for getting water to Great Salt Lake.

07/23/2026

The Great Salt Lake doesn't exist in isolation — it's the downstream endpoint of everything happening across a 36,000-square-mile basin. Water use in the Weber River, the Jordan River, Utah Lake, agriculture, wetlands — it's all connected.

That's the thinking behind the Great Salt Lake Basin Integrated Plan, the first-ever long-term, basin-wide water plan for the region — led by the Utah Division of Water Resources in partnership with the Great Salt Lake Commissioner's Office.

A few highlights from the plan:

🔹 It's being built alongside a major hydrodynamic model developed with the US Bureau of Reclamation, designed to simulate how changes anywhere in the basin ripple out to the lake, and back.

🔹 It's shaped by input from watershed councils, industry, and state and federal partners across the entire basin — not just one river system at a time, for the first time ever.

🔹 As planner Laura Vernon put it: "This isn't a plan solely to save Great Salt Lake — it's a plan that will support a healthy lake" alongside the region's economy and quality of life.

Laura shared the full breakdown at the Great Salt Lake Solutions Exchange, co-hosted by the Great Salt Lake Commissioner's Office and Great Salt Lake Alliance. Full talk now on our YouTube (link below) 🔗

07/22/2026

DNR welcomes Hannah Freeze as the new Great Salt Lake Commissioner! Hannah is a tireless advocate for the Great Salt Lake and brings critical experience from her leadership as Deputy Commissioner and with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

"I look forward to working with our many partners to continue our efforts to protect and preserve Great Salt Lake. Since the creation of the Commissioner’s Office in 2023, meaningful progress has been made, and I am dedicated to ensuring we do everything we can to safeguard this invaluable resource.” – Great Salt Lake Commissioner Hannah Freeze

07/22/2026

Thank you to everyone who celebrated spark free for the Fourth of July! Now let's do it again for Pioneer Day.

07/21/2026

What makes a mineral “critical”?
​​They must be essential to everyday life
​​They must be hard to get

Utah has 50 of the 60 critical minerals that can be found in the United States, and is leading the way in securing those minerals to support our global economy