People Archives - Page 29 of 34

November 28, 2013June 27, 2016

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

April 18, 2013December 31, 2016

May Swenson: Observer of nature and Utah poet

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

In Logan Cemetery a granite bench marks the grave of May Swenson, a native Utahn and eminent poet. She was born in Logan in 1913 and attended Utah State University where she published her first poem. She moved east in 1936, and eventually, she became one of America’s most inventive and recognized poets, She won many awards including Guggenheim and Rockefeller grants, the Yale Bollingen Prize, and the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Utah State University conferred an honorary doctorate on Swenson in 1987. Despite her many achievements and her years living away from Utah, Swenson never forgot her Mormon heritage or her identity as a Westerner.

Nature played a prominent role in Swenson’s work. In fact, she published a collection of poetry called Nature: Poems Old and New which is brimming with imagery that evokes the beauty and complexity of the natural world.

Here’s an example: a poem called April Light read by Paul Crumbley, a professor of English at Utah State University who specializes in Swenson’s work.

April light
Lined with light
the twigs are stubby arrows.
A gilded trunk writhes
Upward from the roots,
from the pit of the black tentacles.
In the book of spring
a bare-limbed torso
is the first illustration.
Light teaches the tree
to beget leaves,
to embroider itself all over
with green reality,
until summer becomes
its steady portrait
and birds bring their lifetime
to the boughs.
Then even the corpse
light copies from below
may shimmer, dreaming it feels
the cheeks of blossom.

Another of Swenson’s poems describes a well-known natural feature in Utah.

Listen to this excerpt of Above Bear Lake:

A breeze, and the filtered light makes shine
A million bristling quills of spruce and fir
Downslope, where slashes of sky and lake
Hang blue—windows of intense stain. We take
The rim trail, crushing bloom of sage,
Sniffing resinous wind, our boots in the wild,
Small, everycolored Rocky Mountain flowers.
Suddenly, a steep drop-off: below we see the whole,
the whale of it—deep, enormous blue—
that widens, while the sky slants back to pale

behind a watercolored mountain.

Listening to this makes me feel like I’m standing on the scenic outlook at the summit of Logan Canyon. That is, of course, where Swenson wrote it.

For more on the Utah poet May Swenson, see our website www.wildaboututah.org
Thanks to Paul Crumbley and Maria Melendez of the English Dept. at Utah State University.
And thanks to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for supporting the research and development for today’s program.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Readings: Paul Crumbley and Maria Melendez of the English Dept, Utah State University

Text: Stokes Nature Center: Holly Strand

Learn More:

Knudson, R.R. and Suzzanne Bigelow. 1996. May Swenson: A Poet’s Life in Photos. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.

December 13, 2012January 5, 2024

Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count

I set out this week to investigate why so many gifts in ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ are birds. You know the song: there are swans a swimming, geese a laying, calling birds, French hens, turtle doves, and that partridge in the pear tree. Well, I never did find the answer. But what I did find was some interesting information about a native bird often incorrectly referred to as a partridge –a bird that is supremely well adapted to life in winter. Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count

Ruffed grouse resemble partridges in that they are ground-dwelling game birds of similar size and stature. Their name comes from a collar of long feathers surrounding the necks of males who fluff them out when seeking mates in spring. The birds come in two color phases, differentiated mainly by their tail feathers, which can be either gray or chestnut brown. While not well understood, a grouse’s color phase seems to be linked to climate. Grouse with gray tails are more prevalent in areas defined by cold winters, while brown grouse are more common in warmer climates.

Now that snow is blanketing the landscape across much of their territory, the ruffed grouse is in its element. Harsh winters that adversely affect populations of other ground-dwelling game birds such as quail, pheasant, and turkeys, don’t seem to faze ruffed grouse. Their ability to survive is dictated by a number of special adaptations. The first is on their feet, where each winter nubby feathers called pectinations grow on the sides of the birds’ toes. Looking like strange combs, the bristles act as snowshoes, allowing the grouse to walk on top of even the softest snow. More special feathers grow on grouse legs like personal leg-warmers, and also near the bird’s beak, covering its nostrils. Scientists believe the feathered mustache enables grouse to breathe in warmer air than they otherwise would, thus keeping their internal temperature more stable.

Changes in weather bring about some changes in behavior as well. Warmer months find the birds resting in evergreens or thick brush. But in winter, when a foot or more snow covers the ground, grouse roost in the snow. The birds create small burrows which hide them from predators, offer protection from frigid winter winds, and keep them surprisingly snug and warm. Many a backcountry skier or snowshoer has been startled by a hidden grouse bursting noisily from its snowy lair.

The birds’ diet also changes seasonally from a summer sampling of green foliage, seeds, berries and insects, to the protein-rich dormant flower buds of trees such as aspen and birch. Grouse also won’t hesitate to eat the sweet flower buds of domestic trees like apples, and were at one time considered a pest in New England orchards. And so it’s actually not out of the question that within ruffed grouse territory, you might wake up one Christmas morning to find a ‘partridge’ in your pear tree.

Speaking of birds and the holiday season, it’s nearly time for the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count. Over the next few weeks, tens of thousands of volunteers around the country will join in this 113-year-old tradition, collecting data on the types and numbers of birds living in their area. This data allows scientists to monitor and track populations over time and space. Participants can be seasoned birders, first timers, or anything in-between. In Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake, and Zion National Park, the count takes place Saturday, December 15th. Other locations around the state will host their events between now and January 5th. To find a count near you, visit birds.audubon.org and click on Christmas Bird Count. For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count-Credits:

Theme: Courtesy & Copyright Don Anderson Leaping Lulu
Images: Courtesy Utah Division of Natural Resources

Text & Voice: Andrea Liberatore,
Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon.

Ruffed Grouse and the Christmas Bird Count-Additional Reading:

Furtman, Michael. ( 1999) Ruffed Grouse: Woodland Drummer. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA.
https://www.amazon.com/Ruffed-Grouse-Woodland-Michael-Furtman/dp/0811731227

Ruffled Grouse, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=bonasa%20umbellus [Link updated January 2024]

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (2012) Ruffed Grouse. Available online at: https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/45436.html

National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count:
https://birds.audubon.org/get-involved-christmas-bird-count-find-count-near-you

Utah Christmas Bird Counts:
https://utahbirds.org/cbc/cbc.html

Logan Christmas Bird Count:
Bridgerland Audubon Society Logan Christmas Bird Count 15 Dec 2012

July 26, 2012June 27, 2020

Wildfires in Utah

Hi, this is Mark Larese-Casanova from the Utah Master Naturalist Program at Utah State University Extension.

Prior to settlement by the pioneers at the end of the 19th century, wildfires were relatively common throughout the mountains of Utah. Wildfires were a result of natural disturbance, such as lightning strikes, but many were purposely set by Native Americans. Wildfires restarted the cycle of forest succession and also created a mosaic of plant communities across the landscape.

Although Utah’s changing climate has had a major influence, human factors have considerably altered the natural fire regime over the past 150 years. Fire frequency slowly declined prior to settlement by the pioneers due to a period of global cooling; however, fire activity increased considerably to its highest point during the settlement period between 1856 and 1909. This increase was linked to the dramatic growth in human population and activity, which lead to increased surface fuel from extensive timber harvesting, and inevitably to more ignition sources for more frequent fires.

Between 1910 and 1990, there was a dramatic decline in wildfires throughout Utah, despite the gradual increase in global temperatures. This was due to intensive livestock grazing, habitat fragmentation as a result of development, agricultural expansion, and effective fire suppression. As a result, shade-intolerant trees that relied on fire for regeneration, such as aspen and lodgepole pine, were often replaced by long-lived, shade-tolerant trees, such as spruce and fir. In general, this resulted in a gradual decline in diversity of plant communities.

As a result, more homogenous forests that are densely populated with trees and accumulated fuels are more susceptible to intense fires that burn hotter and are more difficult to control. In 2007, Utah had a record-setting fire season that burned over 629,000 acres, including the 363,000-acre Milford Flat Fire. We’re halfway through the fire season this year, and approximately 400,000 acres have burned in Utah, costing over $47,000,000 to control. Additionally, wildfires that have burned about three-quarters of the acreage this year were classified as large in size. It seems that increased temperatures, decreased snowpack, and a century of land use and management has resulted in a dangerous wildfire situation in Utah and much of the West. It will take some creative management strategies, such as sustainable timber harvesting or prescribed fires, to tackle this ongoing issue if we want to limit the risk and cost of larger and more frequent wildfires.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Mark Larese-Casanova.

Credits:

Images: Courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, images.fws.gov

Text: Mark Larese-Casanova, Utah Master Naturalist Program at Utah State University Extension.
Additional Reading:

Madany, M. H., and N. E. West. (1983). Livestock grazing-fire regime interactions within montane forests of Zion National Park, Utah. Ecology 64:661-667., https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1937186?uid=3739928&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21100946519023

Neugebauer, C. (Jul 15, 2012). Burning through money: the cost of Utah wildfires. Salt Lake Tribune., https://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54485976-78/fire-fires-cost-costs.html.csp

Utah Fire Info webpage: https://www.utahfireinfo.gov/

Williams, J., D. Albright, A.A. Hoffmann, A. Eritsov, P.F. Moore, J.C.M. de Morais, M. Leonard, J.S. Miguel-Ayanz, G. Xanthopoulos, P. van Lierop. (2011). Findings and implications from a coarse-scale global assessment of recent mega-fires. 5th International Wildland Fire Conference. Sun City, South Africa., https://www.fao.org/docrep/014/am663e/am663e00.pdf

Live Worldwide Network for Lightning and Thunderstorms in Real Time, Blitzortung, https://en.blitzortung.org/live_lightning_maps.php?map=30