Science Moab

Taming Tamarisk by Peggy Hodgkins

Monsoons in the desert southwest rely on a seasonal wind shift to occur. They don’t always materialize. When they come, though, the drastic change in weather and rainfall amounts can often lead to flash floods in a sun-parched desert. We talk with Megan Stackhouse from the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, CO. We talk about the difficulty in predicting rainfall and flooding in arid environments with so much topographic variation.

As the number of climbers grows across the country, so does the number of climbing visitors to Indian Creek (San Juan County, UT). Concern is rising for the conservation of the climbing resource and the fragile desert ecosystem it sits in. This is the second of two podcasts dedicated to the recent attention in this climbing area. We talk with Ty Tyler, Stewardship Director for the Access Fund - a national non-profit organization dedicated to leading and inspiring the climbing community in keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment. We talk about the upcoming stewardship program in Indian Creek that begins this fall (2021).

The number of climbers coming to Indian Creek (San Juan County, UT)has increased like so many outdoor recreation areas. The resource, though, is limited at Indian Creek. This is the first of two podcasts dedicated to this climbing area and the attempts being made to preserve the resource. We talk with David Carter, assistant professor of public policy and administration at the University of Utah’s Department of Political Science. An avid climber himself, David is responsible for distributing a survey to Indian Creek climbers in 2021.

The invasive quagga mussel found its way into Lake Powell in 2012. This rapidly spreading nuisance species is affecting the lake’s ecology, namely its fish population. We talked with biologist Nathan St. Andre about his work with the stable isotopes in the fish of Lake Powell and how they are changing with the presence of the quagga mussel. The results echo a broader geographical division in the Lake itself.

The unique ecosystem of Southwestern Utah includes bits of the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Plateau, and the Great Basin. Here you can find 18 of the 23 species of lizards in the state of Utah. Some species are found nowhere else. Dr. Geoffrey Smith, professor of physiology at Dixie State University, lives in this part of the world for this reason. We talk with him about his work with lizards, in particular the Side-blotched Lizard, which he describes as the most beautiful lizard you’ve ever seen.

The sheer number of recreationists in southern Utah has brought the subject of human waste in the backcountry to a head. The Southeast Utah Health Department is spearheading a campaign to educate visitors and tourists about having a bathroom plan when recreating. We talk with Ginger Allen, the Environmental Stewardship Coordinator at the SEUHD, about the interagency message and a public health campaign that hopes to result in an overall increase in the public’s awareness of human waste issues and disposal techniques for the backcountry.

There are lots of different forms of knowledge, from place-based, community knowledge to science in laboratories. When this wide diversity of understanding isn't listened to or valued, we all lose out. Here, Science Moab speaks with Dr. Sabah Ul-Hasan, who grew up near the Great Salt Lake, about their experience as a scientist studying bioinformatics and how bringing inclusive understandings into science is essential to understanding the world and making it a better place.

Soil mapping involves interpreting landscapes, how soil changes across it, and a bit of art to represent repeatable patterns in a map. The mapping of soils began in the U.S. in the 1930’s as a result of the Dust Bowl, but many remote areas in the West are just getting mapped for the first time. Soil scientist Kristi Mingus talks to Science Moab about her work mapping soils in remote areas of Emery County, Utah. We discuss how the data is collected, how the maps are made, and how the information is available to the public.

When dinosaurs roamed the earth, Southeast Utah was a coastal paradise. Dinosaurs flourished in this utopia in numbers and variety of species unlike any other place. This coupled with the effective preservation of the bones in the rock, make Southeast Utah mecca for paleontologists young and old. Science Moab speaks with John Hankla from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and a few of his recent students, Jake Percival and Megan Sims. We talk about life in the field and the work they are doing in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.