Caption:
In an effort to prevent salt storms, the Urmia lake restoration department planted trees on the part of the lakebed that has completely dried up. White-collar staff visiting the site now park their cars at this point where was underwater once.Iran's Lake Urmia was once the second-largest saltwater lake in the world, covering more than 2,000 square miles at its deepest in the 1990s. In the past two decades, the lake has dried out, shrinking at times to less than 20% of its average size. It's not a story of climate change, though that certainly contributed.