Environmental advocates and artists continue to hope a pint-sized bird will force bold and swift action to save the Great Salt Lake.

Community organizers, along with famed writer Terry Tempest Williams and poet Nan Seymour, called on the U.S. Department of Interior to list the Wilson’s phalarope as a threatened species back in March 2024. The move was meant to bring federal intervention and protect the birds from extinction — and by extension, preserve the lake-based habitat and ecosystem on which they depend.

After getting no response from both the Biden and Trump administrations, however, the groups are now turning to the courts.

“The stakes have never been higher,” said Deeda Seed, a senior campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is absolutely the most urgent cris

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