On a muddy bed of the Great Salt Lake near the Antelope Island causeway, Bruce Thompson, education director for the Friends of the Great Salt Lake, walks alongside the tracks of a scofflaw off-roader. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
The receding banks of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, as seen from the Antelope island causeway. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
At the south end of the Great Salt Lake, a lone flag stands amid puddles and mudpatches. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
Near Antelope Island, birds repose on shallows of the Great Salt Lake. On its busiest days, the lake harbors 5 million birds, from hundreds of species. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
A bison grazes and sips on Antelope Island. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
State parks officials manage a population of about 500 bison on Antelope Island. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
A bison on Antelope Island. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
Avocets cluster in the shallows of the Great Salt Lake near Antelope Island. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
Bruce Thompson, education director fo the Friends of the Great Salt Lake, surveys the lake’s edge from a wetlands viewing tower at the Nature Conservancy’s Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
Avocets take flight over Great Salt Lake. (Christopher Reynolds / LAT)
