High Country News

Save our shrimp

ON MARCH 17, Gov. Spencer Cox, R, signed a bill making the brine shrimp Utah’s official state crustacean. The designation, inspired by the activism of a sixth-grade classroom, draws attention to a monumental problem — the decline of the Great Salt Lake — through something relatable: a tiny creature under serious threat.

Fully grown brine shrimp are just half an inch long, but they comprise a

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