Category: Biome

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Echoes of Lake Bonneville

Echoes of Lake Bonneville: North Spring, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Utah. Courtesy Utah Geological Survey
North Spring, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Utah. Courtesy Utah Geological Survey

Leland Harris wetlands, Snake Valley, Utah, Courtesy Utah Geological SurveyLeland Harris wetlands
Snake Valley, Utah
Courtesy Utah Geological Survey

Least Chub, Courtesy and Copyright Mark C. Belk, PhotographerLeast Chub
Courtesy & © Mark C. Belk, Photographer
Echoes of Lake Bonneville

Hi, I’m Holly Strand of the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.

Deserts are dry by definition receiving an average of less than 10 inches of precipitation a year. In Utah’s cold West Desert, this skimpy amount of moisture slakes the thirst of sagebrush, saltbush or greasewood, but not much else. However, just like the Sahara, the West Desert has its oases. In certain lowland valleys you’ll find complexes of pools and marshes. There isn’t enough rain to form these freshwater sanctuaries. The water comes from giant underground aquifers.

Underneath the West Desert, the aquifer system acts as a storehouse for runoff from the surrounding mountains. As rainwater or snow melt enters or “recharges” the aquifer system, water pressure can build up in some areas. This pressure moves water through cracks and tunnels within the aquifer, and sometimes this water flows out naturally in the form of springs.

These desert springs–and the resulting pools and marshes–permit concentrations of animals and plants not possible under normal desert conditions. You’ll find sedges, rushes cattails and many other wetland plants. Both migratory and year round birds congregate here. There are even a couple of frog species—the Colombian spotted frog and the northern leopard frog.

But most remarkable are the desert spring residents that have survived from the days when the West Desert formed the floor of giant Lake Bonneville. Surveys have revealed a number of relict snails and other mollusks that still persist from that time. Some, like the Black Canyon Pyrg exist at a single spring complex only; they are found nowhere else on earth.

Certain native fish were also left high and dry by Lake Bonneville’s recession. The least chub is a good example. Now the sole member of its genus, this 3-inch long survivor is an unassuming but attractive little minnow. It is olive-colored on top and sports a gold strip on its steel-blue sides. It swims in dense but orderly schools in either flowing or still water. It can withstand both temperature variations and high salinity. The ability to tolerate different physical conditions has undoubtedly helped the least chub survive the post-Lake Bonneville millennium. Even so, the least chub was hanging on in only six different locations until Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources reintroduced it to several more sites within its historic range. The Division and its conservation partners are still working to reduce threats to the least chub, to other spring residents and to the spring habitats themselves.

For more information and pictures go to www.wildaboututah.org

Thanks to Chris Keleher of Utah’s Department of Natural Resources for his help in developing this Wild About Utah story.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Theme: Courtesy & Copyright Don Anderson Leaping Lulu
Image: Least Chub, Mark C. Belk, Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University
Image: Wetlands, Courtesy Utah Geological Survey https://geology.utah.gov/
Text: Holly Strand, Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University

Sources & Additional Reading

Bailey, Carmen L., Kristine W. Wilson Matthew E. Andersen. 2005. CONSERVATION AGREEMENT AND STRATEGY FOR LEAST CHUB (IOTICHTHYS PHLEGETHONTIS) IN THE STATE OF UTAH Publication Number 05-24 Utah Division of Wildlife Resources a division of Utah Department of Natural Resources https://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/fish/least_chubs.pdf

Jones, Jennifer, Rich Emerson, and Toby Hooker. 2013. Characterizing Condition in At-risk
Wetlands of Western Utah: Phase I UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY a division of Utah Department of Natural Resources,https://geodata.geology.utah.gov/pages/view.php?ref=8364

Nature Serve entry for Least Chub: https://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Iotichthys+phlegethontis

Hanks, Joseph H. and Mark C. Belk. 2004. Threatened fishes of the world: Iotichthys phlegethontis Cope, 1874 (Cyprinidae) in Environmental Biology of Fishes, Vol. 71. N. 4., Kluwer Academic Publishers. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10641-004-1030-x

Sigler W. F. & J. W. Sigler. 1996. Fishes of Utah, A Natural History. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. 375 pp. https://www.amazon.com/Fishes-Utah-A-Natural-History/dp/0874804698

Wasatch Front Canyons Geologic Tour, Virtual Tour created from Published Booklet (pdf) Geologic Guide to the Central Wasatch Front Canyons, Utah Geological Survey, State of Utah, https://utahdnr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=5cf1570b998346d98478a5abd50bf096

Geologic guides to the central Wasatch Front Canyons, Utah Geological Survey, 2005, https://geology.utah.gov/popular/utah-landforms/virtual-tour-central-wasatch-front-canyons/ [updated January 2024]

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Algae and Moss

Filamentous algae growing in the Colorado River near Lee’s Ferry. Copyright 2011 Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Photographer
Filamentous algae growing in the Colorado River near Lee’s Ferry
Copyright 2011
Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Photographer

Tortula ruralis is one of the few mosses that are common in the desert. Licensed through Wikimedia, Kristian Peters, PhotographerTortula ruralis
one of the few mosses
that are common in the desert
Courtesy Wikimedia
Licensed under CCA 3.0
Kristian Peters, Photographer

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Utah State University’s Quinney College of Natural Resources.

Algae and moss are plentiful in and around Utah streams and lakes. But lots of people confuse these two kinds of plants. So let’s sort out what each one is.

First, both moss and algae are ancient plant forms that are commonly found in wet or moist places. As primary producers both algae and moss use sunlight to fix energy, giving off oxygen as a byproduct.

Neither algae nor moss has a vascular system to transport water so vertical growth is not their strong suit. Rarely more than an inch tall, a cushion of moss is really a tight cluster of individual moss plants. Bunching helps support the individual moss structures and helps conserve water. Meanwhile, algae comes in many forms, from microscopic one-celled diatoms to huge colonies of giant floating mats, or long flowing filaments. Algae also comes in many colors, such as green, gold, brown and red.

So where are they found? Moss loves shade. Look for it in the deep shadowy gorges and box canyons of the Colorado and Green Rivers. It also thrives in drainages off cliffs and around springs. Damp meadows, tree bases, bogs, and pond edges make great moss habitat. You will seldom find moss in saline environments. Some moss species live submerged in water but most live on land. With the sun-loving algae, the opposite is true—most live in water but some species will grow on damp soil and on the shaded sides of damp walls and trees.

Moss grows very slowly and lives a long time. So it needs a stable environment in which to grow. In contrast, algae is extremely fast-growing. A generation might last from one to several days. Algae is also extremely sensitivity to chemical, temperature and light conditions. Therefore, the presence, absence or quantity of algal species can be a useful indicator of ecosystem health. For instance, your aquatic system is probably in pretty good shape if a number of different species are flourishing. However, if the water is dominated by one or just a few fast growing species and the water starts to turn color—usually green—the system is seriously out of whack. Called algal blooms, these dramatic explosions of growth are usually the result of excess phosphorus or nitrogen runoff in the water.

During blooms the algal mass produces lots of oxygen during the day, but it consumes more than it makes at night. Further, more dead organic material is produced which eats up more oxygen. The result is a severe oxygen deficit. Resident fish, insects, and plants are deprived of oxygen and end up suffocating.

Go to www.wildaboututah.org for links to information on how to prevent algal blooms.

Thanks to 4th grade classes of Fallon Farokhi and Andrea Bostwick for their interest in moss, algae and water quality. Funded by an environmental education grant from the EPA Region 8, the 4th graders investigated and reported on water quality issues in the Bear River watershed. Also, thanks to Wayne Wurtsbaugh and Chuck Hawkins of Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources for their expertise in writing this piece.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:
Image: Algae, Courtesy & Copyright Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Utah State University, Department of Watershed Sciences
Image: Moss, Licensed through the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Courtesy Wikimedia, Kristian Peters, Photographer
Text: Holly Strand, Utah State University, Quinney College of Natural Resources

Sources & Additional Reading

US EPA. Harmful Algal Blooms https://www2.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/harmful-algal-blooms

US EPA. The Effects of Nutrient Pollution and Harmful Algal Blooms] https://www2.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/effects

US EPA. What You Can Do to Reduce Nutrient Pollution https://www2.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/what-you-can-do

Barbour, M.T., J. Gerritsen, B.D. Snyder, and J.B. Stribling. 1999. Rapid Bioassessment Protocols for Use in Streams and Wadeable Rivers: Periphyton, Benthic Macroinvertebrates and Fish, Second Edition. EPA 841-B-99-002. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Office of Water; Washington, D.C. https://water.epa.gov/scitech/monitoring/rsl/bioassessment/

Fisher, S. G. 1995. Stream ecosystems of the Western United States. In River and Stream Ecosystems of the World. C. E. Cushing, K. W. Cummins, and G. W. Minshall eds. University of California Press, Berkley. 817 pp. [Updated October 31, 2024] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261545076_River_and_stream_ecosystems_of_the_world_edited_by_C_E_Cushing_K_W_Cummins_and_G_W_Minshall_University_of_California_Press_Berkeley_2006_No_of_pages_817_ISBN_0-520-24567-9

Flowers, Seville, Mosses: Utah and the West. Edited by Arthur Holmgren, First Published by Brigham Young University Press, 1973 [Updated October 31, 2024] Blackburn Press, July 1, 2001, https://www.amazon.com/Mosses-Utah-West-Seville-Flowers/dp/1930665253

Moss, Brian. 2010. Ecology of Freshwaters. A View for the Twenty-First Century. Wiley-Blackwell. https://www.amazon.com/Ecology-Fresh-Waters-Twenty-First-Century/dp/1444334743

Utah Division of Water Quality. Nutrients in Utah’s Waters https://www.nutrients.utah.gov/ [Updated Oct 31, 2024] https://deq.utah.gov/water-quality/headwater-criteria-nutrients-in-utahs-waters

Utah Water Research Laboratory. 2002. Understanding Nitrate Pollution in Small and Native American Communities. Water Treatment Technology Program Report No. 53. Washington DC, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, Oregon State University Press, March 1, 2003, https://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Moss-Natural-Cultural-History/dp/0870714996 [Accessed Oct 31, 2024]

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Defining the Great Basin

Willow Creek North of Wells, NV. Sagebrush at mid-distance. Route of the California Trail used by pioneers.
Willow Creek north of Wells, NV.
Sagebrush at mid-distance.
Route of the California Trail
used by pioneers.

Courtesy & Copyright
Jim Cane, Photographer

Lupines amid sagebrush north of Wells, NV. Ruby Mountains in backgroundLupines amid sagebrush
north of Wells, NV.
Ruby Mountains in background
Courtesy & Copyright
Jim Cane, Photographer

Map delineating the Great basinMap delineating the Great basin
Courtesy Wikimedia, KMusser, Artist
Ref: wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Basin


The Great Basin is aptly named.  Twice the size of Kansas, it stretches from the watersheds of the Columbia and Snake rivers south to that of the Colorado, and from the crests of the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades eastward to the Wasatch front.  The Western explorer John Fremont coined its name in 1845.  The rivers and streams of the region that Fremont had seen all ended in sinks, marshes or lakes. None flowed to the Pacific Ocean.  He confirmed this on meeting Joseph Walker at Mountain Meadows in Utah.  Walker had traveled more of the basin’s western margins, dispelling  rumors of a river traversing the Sierra Nevada.  Precipitation that falls in the Great Basin stays in the Great Basin; water leaves only as vapor.  This is the hydrographic Great Basin.

How else to view the vast region between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada? Geologists speak of the “Basin and Range Province”, so named for its valleys and the towering ranks of north-south mountain ranges that march across the landscapes of Nevada and edges of adjacent states. Unlike the upthrust Rockies and Sierra Nevada, Earth’s crust in the Great Basin appears to be spreading, to be pulling apart. The tilted escarpments of the Wasatch front are the easternmost evidence of this crustal deformation that has built the Basin and Range Province.

Botanists delimit the Great Basin by the hardy flora that clothes this rugged landscape. Great Basin plants tolerate freezing winters and parched summers, and in the valleys, soils of varying salinity.  The so-called Sagebrush Ocean fills many of the basins, as do other shrubs, such as shadscale and greasewood.  Upslope, these give way to juniper woodlands, often mixed with piñon pine.  This floristic Great Basin reaches eastward to central Utah and the Wasatch front, beyond which trees and other plants of the Rockies make their appearance.

The boundaries of all three concepts for the Great Basin — hydrographic, geologic and floristic — largely coincide.  Each recognizes the distinctive attributes of the Great Basin that set it apart from neighboring regions.  The Great Basin is readily recognizable to the trained eye, whether looking at satellite images, river courses, or the native plant communities encountered on a simple walk.

Credits:
Images: Jim Cane
Map: Courtesy Wikimedia, KMusser, Artist, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Text: Jim Cane

Additional Reading

Frémont, John Charles. 1845. Report of the exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842 and to Oregon and North California in the years 1843 – 44. Printed by order of the Senate of the United States , Gales & Seaton, 693 pages. –available as a Google eBook scanned from the original published book Grayson, Donald K. 1999. The desert’s past : a natural prehistory of the Great Basin. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 356 pages. –an exceptionally readable, thorough and authoritative overview of the Great Basin, with many maps, photographs and illustrations.https://books.google.com/books?id=W8ICAAAAMAAJ

Intermountain Regional Herbarium Network. searchable plant database representing multiple holdings of herbaria at universities in Utah and Nevada, with maps, images and more https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/projects/index.php?proj=10

McPhee, John. 1981. Basin and Range. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York. 215 pages. –the first of the author’s many engaging books about geology. https://www.amazon.com/Basin-Range-John-McPhee/dp/0374516901

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Rock Climbing

Photo Courtesy Wikimedia, Bob Protus (katsrcool) Photographer
Rock Climbing
on Potash Road, Moab, UT
Courtesy Wikimedia & Bob Protus (katsrcool), Photographer

Hi, this is Justin Lofthouse from the USU Natural Resource Interpretation Class.

Many might think that rock climbing results from a quest for adrenaline and danger. On the contrary, most rock climbers strive for a calm and controlled state of mind. Many participate in rock climbing for reasons such as solitude, adventure, self-exploration, pushing physical limits and accomplishment. The explosion of the number of people participating in rock climbing over the last decade has altered how many obtain these benefits.

As more and more people are climbing in Utah, it has become harder to find solitude and adventure. This increase in numbers has led to Federal land managers taking a closer look at the impacts caused by overuse. A strong wilderness ethic is vital to the future access of climbing areas.

In a recent poll on mountainproject.com, the question was asked, “What are the top 10, best climbing states?” Among the replies, Utah is almost always among the top three. Canyons such as American Fork, Logan, Maple, Little and Big Cottonwood make northern Utah a top competitor. These steep technical faces offer difficult, continuous routes that push the physical realm of the sport. When southern Utah is thrown into the mix, Utah truly stands out as a gem. Places like Zion, Indian Creek, Moab, and St. George have parallel-sided cracks that split sandstone walls for hundreds of feet. These remote desert regions offer a feeling of adventure and solitude that many areas in the U.S. lack. These qualities have put Utah high on the list as a must-visit climbing destination.

Gone are the days when you and your partner were the only people climbing in an area on a weekend. As information about the amazing climbing in Utah has become readily available, people have come by hordes to explore what Utah has to offer. Although rock climbers will have to find new ways to share such a unique resource, no one is doubting that Utah truly has something special to offer when it comes to rock climbing. It will take a concentrated effort on the part of all climbers to help maintain such a wonderful resource for future generations of climbers.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Justin Lofthouse.

Credits:
Image: Courtesy Wikimedia, Bob Protus (katsrcool) Photographer, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0
Text: Justin Lofthouse

Sources and Additional Reading

Climbing and Canyoneering, Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior,
https://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/st__george/recreation/rock_climbing.html

Rock Climbing, Capital Reef National Park, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/care/planyourvisit/rockclimbing.htm