Wild About Utah Archives - Page 30 of 145

June 19, 2023November 19, 2023

Toxic Plants

I just returned from southern Indiana, another “Land of Lincoln” where I visited a beautiful monument featuring Abraham Lincoln’s early life on a farm carved from the Indiana wilderness. In 1818, Abe’s “angel mother” as he described her, suffered a violent death called milk sickness. Further reading on the interpretive sign told how a plant called white snakeroot had a toxin, which was transferred to the milk and meat when ingested by livestock.

Of course, we have our toxic plants here in Utah as well. One that is reported to have caused death in humans and livestock is the foothill death camas, one of a few extremely toxic plants found in our area, and a very common early spring plant throughout much of Utah’s foothills.

Death camas plants include several species of Zigadenus. At least 15 species are native to North America and grow in all kinds of habitats: moist mountain valleys, dry hills, forest, grassland, and even coastal and marsh areas. There may be some variation in toxicity level from one species to the next, but ALL should be considered dangerous.
I became aware of this beautiful member of the lily family when one of my more adventuresome students shared his story. As a 10 year old, he decided to experiment by eating some of the foothill death camas. Soon after he was rushed to the ER to have his stomach pumped. He reported there was no further experimentation!

Symptoms of poisoning by death camas include vomiting and excessive salivation, tremors, weakness, loss of control over body movements, convulsions, and coma. Ultimately, an animal that has eaten too much will die. A half pound consumed can be fatal to livestock.

It is possible to mistake death camas for the edible blue camas lily, sego lily, and wild onions, all of which were an early staple of native Americans and pioneers. More recently, some unfortunate railroad workers died shortly after eating the bulbs. Eight adults ingested foothill death camas (Zigadenus paniculatus) bulbs in Juab County, Utah, believing them to be nontoxic wild bulbs. All who ingested the bulbs became ill, and three of them required admission for medical treatment.

The probable fatal dose, extrapolated from animal data, ranges from less than one-tenth pound (four-five bulbs) for a young child to a pound for an adult. Other parts of the plant such as nectar and seeds are also highly toxic. Atropine and dopamine are treatments. Poisoned individuals become relatively asymptomatic within 24 hours of their ingestion. No long-term symptoms have been reported.

As with most all toxic plants, they have medicinal properties as well. The death camas root can reduce swollen knees and leg aches. Use with caution!!

Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon Society, and I’m wild about Utah and it’s poisonous plants.

Credits:
Images: Courtesy USDA Forest Service, C. Webber, Photographer, https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/whiteriver/learning/?cid=fsm9_019086
Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
Text: Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Lyle W Bingham, Webmaster, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Jack Greene’s Postings on Wild About Utah, https://wildaboututah.org/author/jack/

Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Writing Her Story, 31 Women in 31 Days, Indiana Commission for Women, https://www.in.gov/icw/files/20160331_Lincoln_Nancy.pdf

Death Camas, Zygadenus spp., USDA Forest Service, White River National Forest, Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture, (USDA), https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/whiteriver/learning/?cid=fsm9_019086

Zigadenus paniculatus (Nutt.) S. Watson, Foothills Death Camas, National Conservation Resource Service (NRCS), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=ZIPA2

Foothill Deathcamas, Range Plants of Utah, Extension, Utah State University, https://extension.usu.edu/rangeplants/forbs-herbaceous/deathcamas

Deathcamas (Zigadenus gramineus, Z. venenosus, Z. paniculatus, Z. nuttallii), Poisonous Plant Research: Logan, UT, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, (USDA), https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/logan-ut/poisonous-plant-research/docs/deathcamas-zigadenus-gramineus-z-venenosus-z-paniculatus-z-nuttallii/

Panter, K.E., M.H. Ralphs, J.A. Pfister, D.R. Gardner, B.L. Stegelmeier, S.T. Lee, K.D. Welch, B.T. Green, T.Z. Davis, and D. Cook. 2011. Plants Poisonous to Livestock in the Western States. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Bulletin No. 415. https://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/poisonousplants/poisonousplants.pdf

Cane, J., Gardner, D.R., Weber, M. 2020. Neurotoxic alkaloid in pollen and nectar excludes generalist bees from foraging at death-camas, Toxicoscordion paniculatum (Melanthiaceae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, London. 131(4):927-935. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blaa159. https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=383255 and https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/131/4/927/5943492

UTAH POISON CONTROL CENTER, Call 800-222-1222 – Don’t hesitate to call if you suspect poisoning. The call is free and time is of the essence.

Find a Poison Center, 1-800-222-1222, Health Resources & Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services https://poisonhelp.hrsa.gov/poison-centers/find-poison-center

June 12, 2023September 11, 2023

What’s On Your List?

A Leech on Trip Armstrong’s Thumb Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer — Canoeing in Benson Marina
Benson, Utah
Courtesy & Copyright Shannin Kishbaugh, photographer

A Leech on Trip Armstrong’s Thumb
Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer

A Leech Escaping a Container
Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer

If I were to ask you to craft a list of words that represent your connection to the natural world, which words immediately pop into your mind? Of course, President Theodore Roosevelt said, “There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm.” Yet, Brooke Smith published her book “The Keeper of Wild Words” in response to learning that nature words she loved were replaced in the Oxford Junior Dictionary for words like chatroom and voicemail.

Grandmother Mimi tells young Brook, “If we don’t use words, they can be forgotten. And if they’re forgotten, they disappear.”

That voice was the person who gave me this beautiful book, fellow Edith Bowen Laboratory School teacher Shannin Kishbaugh. I invited her with me to talk about wild words.

What words top your list? I would say calm, peaceful, freedom, exploration, and wonder.

My list evolves, but it always has wapiti and mica schist. It includes caddisfly casings on river rocks and cumulonimbus clouds in the sky. I love red-winged blackbirds I saw this morning in the phragmites along the roadside, curlycup gumweed I discovered at Hardware Ranch, stinging nettle walking the banks as a child with my father just off Fireclay Avenue in Murray, and hoodoos in Goblin Valley.

My most recent word is leech. Shannin, when you hear that, what are your words? Uncertainty, fear, dirty, slimy, old documents and uses in medicine. I’ve become a lover of water bugs this year, but still leeches feel extreme.

Well, those are very different words from your nature words. Not long ago at a conference cleverly titled “In Mud” about place-based education for young children, I stood with teachers from Washington state to Washington D.C. While the goal was discussing developing nature inquiry projects based on interest of the students, a colleague saw a dark blob on another’s boot and for the remainder of the workshop, we as educators huddled in a circle playing with the leech like children. It slithered and reached; we gazed in wonder and some apprehension. I realized I’d never spent time appreciating a leech.

There are lots of leech species, including some found only in Utah. They begin life in a cocoon which surprised me, they have suckers that give them the reputation as selfish parasites even though they don’t all suck blood, and they play an important role in the food chain. This spring when we took our first graders out again to explore what lives in the water, this time to Benson Marina of Cutler Reservoir, our students canoed past an osprey nest, captured the cattails in watercolor, and even observed a leech clinging to our guest scientist Trip Armstrong’s thumb. As the students worked, your idea was to collect the words, their exclamations, and offer them back to them to use in writing list poetry.

Let’s end with some of the nouns, adjectives and verbs from their list: “paddle whirlpools, dunking ducks, pelican peace, and ripple reflections.” And of course, “little leech. It was the best feeling. Happiness all around me.”

We are Shannon Rhodes and Shannin Kishbaugh, and we are wild about Utah words.

Credits:

Images: Canoeing – Courtesy & Copyright Shannin Kishbaugh, Photographer
Leeches – Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer
Audio: Courtesy & © Friend Weller, https://upr.org/
Text: Shannon Rhodes, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University https://edithbowen.usu.edu/
Additional Reading Links: Shannon Rhodes

Additional Reading:

Wild About Utah Pieces by Shannon Rhodes, https://wildaboututah.org/author/shannon-rhodes/

Andrews, Candice Gaukel. (2009). Nature Words on the Brink of Extinction. https://www.nathab.com/blog/nature-words-on-the-brink-of-extinction/

Black, Riley. (2021). New species of leech found in Utah. https://nhmu.utah.edu/articles/2023/05/new-species-leech-found-utah

Govedich, Fredric R. and Bonnie Bain. (2005). All About the Leeches of Montezuma Well. https://www.nps.gov/moca/learn/nature/upload/montezuma_well_leeches.pdf

Morse, Susan. A Few Words for Nature Nerds. https://www.fws.gov/story/few-words-nature-nerds

Smith, Brooke. (2020). The Keeper of Wild Words. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/the-keeper-of-wild-words

U.S. Department of the Interior. (2020). The Conservation Legacy of Theodore Roosevelt. https://www.doi.gov/blog/conservation-legacy-theodore-roosevelt

Utah State University Extension. Key to Aquatic Macroinvertebrates in Utah. https://extension.usu.edu/waterquality/macrokey/no-shell/worm-like/

June 5, 2023June 7, 2023

1983 vs 2023 Spring Flooding

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from the Utah Division of Emergency Management.

The roar you hear in the background is Ashley Creek flowing underneath Highway 191 in Vernal. Rivers and creeks all over the state have been running high with melted snow from the biggest snowpack ever recorded in Utah.

1983 was last time we had anything near this amount of snowmelt fueling our spring runoff. That year, there were multiple 100-year (and bigger) floods. The landslide in Thistle triggered Utah’s first presidential disaster declaration. For weeks, floods, landslides, and debris flows damaged homes, highways, and drainage canals. 22 of Utah’s 29 counties were affected.

This year—with a historic snowpack– it seems like we should be experiencing more 100-year floods or even 500-year floods. Even though only 40 years have gone by since 1983. It’s quite possible, because 100-year floods don’t happen just once every 100 years. They are just projected to happen every 100 years on average**

So did this year’s historic snowpack—more than in 1983–cause another round of 100-year floods? Hasn’t so far and doesn’t look like it will. There has been isolated flooding in some areas, and groundwater flooding, but we just aren’t seeing damage on the same scale that we saw 40 years ago. Why not?

For one thing, Utah communities took lots of mitigation measures in the wake of the 1983 floods. New debris basins were built, stormwater systems improved, river and watersheds were restored, and at-risk structures were flood-proofed. Communities also prepared their residents for floods with information and sandbags! But a big reason Utah didn’t suffer from 100-year or floods, is that the 2023 spring was absolutely ideal for moving water safely from the snowy, high elevations to the thirsty reservoirs and lakes below. Since peak snowpack in the beginning of April, there’s been a long gradual warming trend with no big storms. Stream flows have been consistently high for 2 months instead coming down all at once during a sudden long hot spell of 90 plus temperatures. We dodged a bullet this year thanks to mitigation, preparation and Mother Nature!

Thanks to Glen Merrill with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City and to Tom Wright, hydrological engineer at AECOM for their expert knowledge.

I’m Holly Strand and I’m Wild About Utah and Utah Public Radio!

**A 100-year flood–has a 1% chance of happening each and every year on any given stream reach. Consider what happens when you roll dice. Let’s say you roll a double six. You could get double sixes on the very next roll. But over many, many, many rolls, you will average double sixes only once every 36 rolls. Similarly you could get a 100-year flood one year, and then the very next year you could roll another 100-year flood but there’s a 99% chance that you won’t. But averaged over a long time, like 1000s of years, a 100-year flood should happen—on average—once every 100 years. To make this concept clearer flood experts prefer to say 1% annual chance flood instead of 100-year flood.

Credits:

Images: Courtesy & Copyright Holly Strand, Photographer
Additional Audio: Holly Strand
Voice: Holly Strand
Text: Holly Strand, Utah Division of Emergency Management
Additional Reading: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Wild About Utah pieces authored by Holly Strand

Some interesting sites for flood nerds:
Utah Flood Hazards and Floodplain Management, Utah Division of Emergency Management, https://floodhazards.utah.gov/

Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce, https://www.cbrfc.noaa.gov/lmap/lmap.php?interface=snow

NOAA ATLAS 14 Point Precipitation Frequency Estimates: UT, Office of Water Prediction (OWP), National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce, https://hdsc.nws.noaa.gov/pfds/pfds_map_cont.html?bkmrk=ut

https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/106/pdf/100-year-flood_041210web.pdf

Ashley Creek Flowing Underneath Highway 191, Vernal, UT
Courtesy & Copyright Holly Strand, Photographer

May 29, 2023September 11, 2023

Spring Dandelion Power

Morning for the spring dandelion is gentle and calm
The world is no longer a struggle but instead a serendipitous balm
Your yellow buds open upon you, sneaking between others some pink, some white
More colors even still in the waxing new day’s light
Spring Dandelion Power
There is no better time for the dandelion than when spring has sprung
The leaves are fresh green and so is the fresh dung
Birds do sing high up in the stretching yawning trees
Staking their turf, edges, and new nesting eaves

Spring when sprung well sizzles with waking signs
Of kin abloom drawn with straight growing lines
One end towards sun, the other down towards the deep
Until some roots build taps, and others go on the creep

The days are now joyous choruses of neighbor raucous crocuses
Avian acrobats whirling spinning diving like ferocious locusts
Shades of toothed green batten down the laden earth
Soaking and drinking and filling to fullest milky girth

And as the sun sets on each new spring day
I am reminded of the new presence by the heat that stays
Radiating, glowing, even after the moon has shown
Continuing the journey of growth and what has grown

It is amazing to think that each year the world mends
Its browns in all hues to life in all bends
From sails to seeds to germ and blossom
Dandelion life is both humble and awesome

So this spring when sprung look out your window or door
Remember that life gives always life more and more
If in doubt, don’t wait: be like the dandelion flower
Thriving in cracks and interrupting silly lawns with unrelenting blissful dandelion power

I’m Patrick Kelly, and I’m Wild About Utah

Credits:

Images: Courtesy & © Patrick Kelly
Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/
Text: Patrick Kelly, Director of Education, Stokes Nature Center, https://www.logannature.org
Included Links: Patrick Kelly & Lyle Bingham, Webmaster, WildAboutUtah.org

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Posts by Patrick Kelly

Stokes Nature Center, https://www.logannature.org/

Brain McCann, Roslynn, Dandelion, Friend or Foe?, Wild About Utah, Apr 4, 2016, https://wildaboututah.org/dandelion-friend-foe/

Greene, Jack, Pioneer Day Edible Native Plants 2016, Wild About Utah, Jul 18, 2016, https://wildaboututah.org/pioneer-day-edible-native-plants-2016/