Category: Springs, Rivers, Lakes and Streams

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Conservation: North and South

St George Winter Bird Festival, Courtesy St. George City
St. George Winter Bird Festival
Courtesy St. George City
I spent 2 gloriously warm days in Dixie where I attended the Winter Bird Festival, a grand event by any measure! I also had the good fortune of discovering “Citizens for Dixie’s Future” (henceforth CDF) which has taken on the onerous task of brokering piece between a surging population and the regions limited natural resources. Water topped the list, especially the Lake Powell Pipeline proposal. So I did a bit of reading from CDF’s well stocked library.

It soon became apparent that this multi-billion dollar project needs closer inspection on cost vs benefits. The costs must include not only dollars, but some unintended consequences such as continued urban sprawl in a super sensitive Mojave Desert ecosystem with an abundance of plant and animal life that I became more aware of through an excellent WBF presentation by naturalist educator Marshall Topham on the biodiversity of Washington County.

Citizens for Dixie’s Future
Citizens for Dixie’s Future
Courtesy Citizens for Dixie’s Future

Located at the confluence of 3 major biomes- Great Basin Desert, Mojave desert, and the Colorado Plateau intersected by numerous rivers and the towering Pine Valley Mountains, Washington County is a wildlife mecca with over 350 species of birds listed, an excellent indicator of its natural wealth.

So my naturalist instincts and a propensity towards frugality led me to look for pipeline alternatives.

I found conservation to be the most obvious and least expensive alternative. In 2009, Washington County was at or near the top in the West for per capita water use at 294 gallons per day. In dramatic contrast Tucson was 161 and golf course and fountain studded Vegas at 222. If the county was to set a goal for 1% reduction in water use per annum, it would negate the need for the pipeline according to CDF.

We notherners in Cache County are being threatened with a similar situation. Our Bear River which supplies 60% of the surface flow into the Great Salt Lake and is the primary source for the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is under scrutiny for multibillion dollar reservoir development to serve the Wasatch Front. In addition to the hefty price tag, this has very serious implications for loss of prime agriculture land and high value wildlife habitat.

The following conservation practices are taken from the CDF.

• Providing rebates for efficient indoor water fixtures and outdoor landscape conversion
• Adding native, drought tolerant landscaping in new developments (and converting old)
• Implementing an increasing rate structure to signal conservation to the customer
• Conservation programs must include numeric targets and performance measures
• Updating building codes with more aggressive plumbing and appliance standards
• Increasing education and awareness about reducing peak water use.
• Implementing smart growth principals and preventing sprawl

An additional conservation possibility being explored by some USU folks is restoring healthy populations of beaver to the Bear River Watershed. This has potential for water storage rivaling planned reservoirs not to mention the supurb wildlife habitat created as a bonus. A question for the Dixie folks- how are the beaver populations in the Beaver Dam and Pine Valley mountains fairing?

This is Jack Greene for Wild About Utah.

Credits:
Image: Courtesy St George Bird Festival, St. George City and Citizens for Dixie’s Future
Text:     Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon Society
Additional Reading:

Citizens for Dixie’s Future, https://citizensfordixie.org/

Big Bend Habitat Restoration Project: A Natural Work of Heart, Open Spaces-A Talk on the Wild Side, US FWS, https://www.fws.gov/news/blog/index.cfm/2016/3/25/Big-Bend-Habitat-Restoration-Project-A-Natural-Work-of-Heart [Accessed March 31, 2016]

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Best Snow

Click to view larger image of a skier at Brian Head, Photo Courtesy USDA Forest Service
Skier at Brian Head
Photo Courtesy USDA Forest Service

As the mountains begin to take on hues of scarlet, gold and russet, many Utahns might be looking eagerly toward the coming months when those slopes will be blanketed in white. The Utah ski industry nurtures a whopping annual income of about $800 million dollars. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the state claims to have the “greatest snow on earth.” In fact, the state of Utah managed to make their slogan a federal trademark in 1995 after winning a lawsuit brought by the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus group, who felt the catchy marketing phrase might be confused with their slogan, the Greatest Show on Earth.

The trademark must have worked, because Utah draws so many visitors to its slopes, it racks up about 4 million skier days annually. But disregard plenty of evidence that we do indeed draw a crowd, and the statement is pretty subjective. So what’s the science behind our legendary powder?

The ideal condition skiers hope for is a deep, fluffy snow that creates the illusion of bottomless powder. And finding it is a bit like the Goldilocks story. Too wet, and you bog down. Too dry, and there’s not enough body to create a floating sensation beneath the ski. If the terrain is too steep, the powder won’t stick. And if it’s not steep enough, you can’t build sufficient momentum to glide over the top.

To get to the bottom of why Utah’s snow is just right, we actually have to look even further westward, toward the slow warm waters of the North Pacific current. As water laden clouds move inland, snow first falls over the Cascades in the north and the Sierra Nevadas further south, with an average moisture content of 12%. Even in areas like Washington’s Mt. Baker, where annual snowfall comes in greater quantities than Utah, the moister maritime snow creates a heavy base that bogs down skis. By the time these winter storms cross the Great Basin and reach the skiers’ Mecca of Alta and the Wasatch Range, the moisture content will have decreased to about 8.5%. And that seems to be the sweet spot. The moisture content of Utah’s intermountain snow is just enough that powder from our first storms settles into a soft but voluminous base. As winter progresses, fresh snow falls in a cold and mostly arid environment, forming very fine, symmetrical crystals called dendrites. The microscopic structure of dendrites allows them to accumulate in well ventilated, incompact drifts, much like the puffy down in your favorite pillow or ski jacket.

And perfect powder isn’t the only advantage Utah’s ski resorts have over their neighbors. Our mountainous topography, with its wealth of winding canyons, means we have an abundance of slopes well protected from strong winds which could compact or carry away fresh snowfall. And while so many cold and overcast days might get you down, it also protects our top powder from radiation and air mass effect, which can create a crust along the surface. And that means our freshly fallen powder sticks around for longer.

So consider that Utah offers 26,000 acres of mountain, blanketed in more than 500 annual inches of perfect intermountain snow, and it’s no wonder we enjoy 5 times the number of “powder days” as our neighbors. “The Greatest Snow on Earth” starts sounding a lot less subjective, and more like truth. In fact, you just might be tempted to make like Goldilocks and make yourself at home.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Ru Mahoney.

Credits:
Image: Courtesy USDA Forest Service, fs.usda.gov
Text:     Ru Mahoney, Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon.


Additional Reading:

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Pot Holes and Fairly Shrimp

Aerial view of potholes in Navajo sandstone, Grand County, Utah. Photo Courtesy USGS
Aerial view of potholes in Navajo sandstone, Grand County, Utah.

Photo Courtesy USGS 

Click to view larger image of Adult Fairy Shrimp, Photo Courtesy USGSAdult fairy shrimp
Branchinecta packardi.
Photo Courtesy USGS 

Click to view larger image of Adult Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp, Photo Courtesy USGSAdult Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp
Branchinecta lynchi
Photo Courtesy USGS 
 

Shrimp in the desert landscape of Canyonlands National Park? Yep. You can find them, –fairy shrimp– when the rainy season arrives and turns dry, dusty potholes into water-filled rock basins brimming with life.

A surprising array of creatures relies on these potholes for life, and one of the most curious is the fairy shrimp. These unique crustaceans are found in small potholes that dot sandstone outcrops found in America’s Southwest. Their eggs maintain resilience during the dry season, and when spring rains arrive, the shrimp hatch.

There are more than 300 varieties of fairy shrimp, the most common being the Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp. These little guys measure between a half-inch to one-and-a-half inches long as adults. They can be found anywhere ephemeral pools are present, though the majority of their population resides in California and Oregon.

Fairy shrimp vary in color depending on the menu found in their particular pool of residency, ranging from translucent, to orange, even to blue! They feature 11 pairs of legs to propel themselves upside-down, or more scientifically, ventral side-up.

They also use these incredibly helpful legs to eat unicellular algae, ciliates (sil-ee-its), and bacteria by filter and suspension feeding methods. They filter-feed by pumping water through filtration structures — located in their multi-purpose legs — thus capturing the food. They also are adept at suspension feeding by plucking food floating in the water, again, with their tentacle-like legs. They may also grab or scrape food from the surfaces of other things in their vernal pool, such as sticks and rocks.

What’s truly amazing is how fairy shrimp reproduce. They typically lay drought-tolerant eggs during the summer that over-winter in the dried sediment on the pot hole bottom and then hatch in the spring when the potholes fill with rainwater However, if drought sets in, eggs can be transferred to other pools by floating in gusts of wind or being carried by a particularly curious animal.

These eggs are tough and can withstand varying temperatures, drought, and even the test of time; eggs in laboratory settings have survived intact up to 15 years before hatching.

Under the right conditions, you can observe fairy shrimp in Canyonlands, Arches, and Death Valley national parks. Canyonlands and Arches boast at least two species of fairy shrimp: the Packard Ferry Shrimp, also known as the Rock Pool Ferry Shrimp or the Arizona Ferry Shrimp, and the Great Plains Ferry Shrimp.

Fairy shrimp hatch in the Spring, right after the potholes and vernal pools re-fill with water, so that will be your prime time to look for these interesting creatures. As travelers, you can do your part to help the fairy shrimp by leaving their vernal pools alone. Drinking water, stepping in, or touching a pool can throw off the entire mini-eco-system located in this fascinating habitat.

And remember, our fingers are very salty, so even if you’re using a gentle touch, do not put your fingers in a vernal pool, as it just might raise the salinity and throw off the dissolved oxygen percentage needed for fairy shrimp to survive.

For Wild About Utah and National Parks Traveler, I’m Kurt Repanshek.

Credits:
Image: Courtesy USGS, www.usgs.gov
Image: Courtesy and Copyright Kurt Repanshek, www.nationalparkstraveler.com
Text:     Kurt Repanshek, NationalParksTraveler.com.
Additional Reading:

https://digitallibrary.utah.gov/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=22782

https://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/invertebrates/vernal-pool-fairy-shrimp.aspx

https://www.arizonafairyshrimp.com/fairyshrimp.html

https://geochange.er.usgs.gov/sw/impacts/biology/vernal/

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/X-Press/shrimp_spotlight.html

https://www.fws.gov/sacramento/es_kids/Vernal-Pool-Fairy-Shrimp/es_kids_vernal-pool-fairy-shrimp.htm

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Riparian Zones and a Critter Quiz

Hello, this is Jim Goodwin.

In a minute I’ve got a critter quiz for you, but first, a word about the huge importance of riparian areas in semi-arid Utah, the second driest state in the union. Utah State’s Extension Service calls riparian zones the green ribbon of life alongside a stream. They are shadier, cooler and moister than adjacent environments.

And with a diverse mix of plants and animals, our few riparian corridors are heavily used by wildlife for food, rest and shelter.

Ok, now for our critter quiz.

What is the largest rodent in North America? Here’s a hint: they can be up to four feet long and weigh 40 to 60 pounds.

Did that do it? No? Alright, this clue will: They spend much of their life in water. They have a beautiful brown coat, a broad flat hairless tail and big orange buck teeth that continually grow, which is why they chew and chew and chew.

Click for larger picture, Beaver with branch in water, Courtesy US FWS, Steve Hillebrand, Photographer
Beaver with branch in water
Courtesy US FWS,
Steve Hillebrand, Photographer
Good, you got it . . . it’s the North American beaver. Or as Utah environmental author Chip Ward calls them: the Flat Tail Climate Hero for the restoration of damaged watersheds. Beaver are amazing aquatic engineers, second only to humans in their ability to manipulate their environment.

In our nation’s history, they’ve played a big role in literarily shaping our western landscape.
Joe Wheaton, Utah State wildlife and a beaver expert, rightly calls the work of the beaver “cheap and cheerful restoration” of our heat stressed watersheds.

In the wild, these mostly nocturnal animals, normally live five to ten years.
Fortunately, they are rarely killed for their pelts these days. Beaver are usually monogamous. They will produce up to 10 babies. The young kits will stay home until they are two or so, before they will take off on their own.

Beaver are master aquatic builders. the original geo-engineers. They build dams to flood areas for protection from predators, for access to their food supply, and to provide safe underwater entrances to their dens. Their dams create beautiful riparian habitat for many other animals, birds, fish amphibians, insects and plants. The flooded areas slow the flow of water and sediment downstream and raise the area water table.

Aspen, cottonwood, willow and dogwood are their preferred tree. Those trees regenerate quickly after beaver topple them. When their ponds freeze over, beaver jam smaller branches into the mud at the bottom of their pond for food storage.

Beaver dams can be 5 to 10 feet high and 150 feet across. They are constructed with branches, stones, and plants and plastered together with mud. Over 1200 beaver dams have been counted in northern Utah’s Bear River mountains alone. The World’s largest beaver dam in Canada is 2,789 feet in length. That’s more than 9 football fields.

Yes, sometimes beaver can be a nuisance to human property and activities. Often, learning to live with beaver and the many benefits they can bring, can be a solution. There are simple time-tested ways to prevent flooding. But if nothing works, they can be live trapped and moved to another area. There’s no need to shoot them.

Be a “beaver believer.” Here are some organizations you can check with to learn more:
Utah State wildlife researchers Wally McFarland and Joe Wheaton have created something called the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool to track beaver dam building activities and their effects throughout the state.
The Bear River Watershed Council in Cache Valley and Mary O’Brien with the Grand Canyon Trust in southern Utah are excellent organizations to contact.

I’m Jim Goodwin for Wild About Utah.

Credits:
Image: Courtesy US FWS, Steve Hillebrand, Photographer
Text:     Jim Goodwin
Additional Reading:

Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool, https://brat.joewheaton.org/

Bear River Watershed Council, (disbanded, formerly at: https://www.brwcouncil.org/)

Grand Canyon Trust, https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/

Beaver Castor canadensis, National Geographic, https://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/beaver/

Big Bend Habitat Restoration Project: A Natural Work of Heart, Open Spaces-A Talk on the Wild Side, US FWS, https://www.fws.gov/news/blog/index.cfm/2016/3/25/Big-Bend-Habitat-Restoration-Project-A-Natural-Work-of-Heart [Accessed March 31, 2016]

Beaver Dams Strengthened by Humans Help Fish Rebound
60-Second Science – July 25, 2016 – By Jason G. Goldman02:29 https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/beaver-dams-strengthened-by-humans-help-fish-rebound/ Also available through the podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/60-second-science/id189330872?mt=2

Restoring Degraded Waters, One Pest at a Time, Utah State Magazine, Utah State University, December 7, 2021, https://utahstatemagazine.usu.edu/environment/restoring-degraded-waters-one-nuisance-at-a-time/