On Friday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced they are implementing a plan to reduce its water consumption, which may help them provide more help to the Great Salt Lake. 

The church announced on Wednesday that it would donate the largest-ever donation of water shares to the lake.

“A study is taking place of all of our water assets to see which ones perhaps we’re not using and which ones we could do without even if we are using them,” Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, said at the Wallace Stegner Symposium. “I would be surprised if this is the last donation or participation of the church in this effort.”

The amount of lawn at church meetinghouses has been reduced. Bishop Waddell said that lawns at new meetinghouses only comprise 35-40% of the landscape, compared to the 80-90% they used to comprise.

Utah GOP will choose between Rob Axson or Mike Bird as the new state party chair

Rob Axson and Mike Bird are vying to be the new Utah GOP chair. State GOP delegates will vote on April 22 to choose who will succeed Carson Jorgensen as chair.

Both candidates have served in party leadership. Axson currently runs Sen. Mike Lee's state office and is a member of the Republican Party State Central Committee. Bird, who was the first to launch his campaign for chair, has served as the Utah GOP's treasurer for four years. 

"We’ve kind of lost track of growing our party," Bird said. "We need to refocus our time, energy and resources on getting new members, and in turn we need to educate them and train them and get them more involved." 

Read more about the candidates here.

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