Science Moab

Not everyone looks at the night sky in the same way. Science Moab talks with Autumn Gillard, the Cultural Resource Manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, who shares her passion for the night sky influenced by her grandmother's teachings. We discuss the importance of the night sky in Southern Paiute culture, including its influence on traditional stories, dances, agricultural methods, and ecological knowledge. The conversation touches on the cultural differences in interpreting celestial bodies among various tribes and Western astronomy and the significance of winter storytelling. Autumn emphasizes preserving and passing down this knowledge through storytelling, mentorship programs, and community outreach events, and advocates for recognizing the scientific contributions of Indigenous people.

This show is part of a series exploring Science Moab’s School to Science Program, connecting students with scientists in the field, the lab, and beyond. This program began in 2021 and to date has mentored over 57 local students. In this episode, we talk with mentor Sarah Karinen, botanist and lead technician for the Northern Colorado Plateau Network of the National Park Service, and Maya and Ari Jacobs, juniors at Grand County High School. Sarah has sponsored several day long job shadows with local students facilitated by Science Moab. Maya and Ari spent a day with Sarah in the field at one of the NPS pinyon juniper long term test plots in Island in the Sky. They helped measure trees, learned a lot of different plant names, and talked about ecology out in nature.

The town of Moab exists because of the freshwater creeks that come off the La Sal Mountains into the alluvial fan the town was built on. We talk with Kara Dohrenwend about the science and efforts behind revitalizing creek corridors in Moab, including the history, current challenges, and strategic restoration plans for Moab's creeks. A key part of the restoration includes the removal of invasive species like Russian olive and tamarisk, which are replaced with native vegetation to mitigate fire hazards and improve ecological health. These projects also aim to manage flooding in Mill and Pack Creeks by stabilizing creek banks and facilitating better flood control.

Ray Mesa, near the La Sal mountains on the Colorado-Utah border is notable for its old-growth Ponderosa pines (estimated to be several hundred years old) that are growing in cool drainages amongst pinyon-juniper woodlands. Recent Ponderosa tree mortality raised concerns among land managers and Larissa Yocom, a fire ecologist at Utah State University, began exploring the potential causes of these deaths. These include drought, insect attacks, and increased competition due to fire suppression over the last 140 years. This research underscores the challenges of ecosystem management, particularly under changing climates, and highlights the unique importance of these rare old Ponderosa stands.

The Bears Ears Digital Cultural Heritage Initiative (BEDCHI) is a group of anthropologists, archaeologists, and Indigenous leaders from: three universities, the Navajo Nation Heritage and Historic Preservation Department (NNHHPD), the Zuni Cultural Resources Advisory Team (ZCRAT), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Forest Service, (USFS), as well as students from Navajo and Zuni communities collaborating to create virtual reality experiences and photogrammetric models of significant sites in the Bears Ears National Monument. We talk with Eric Heller, professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California, Noah Pleshet, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of New Brunswick, and Ben Bellorado, assistant curator at the Arizona State Museum about their methods and the importance of involving descendant communities in the interpretation and preservation of these sacred sites.  We talk about the educational and preservation goals of the initiative, the involvement of Indigenous students, and the future potential for expanding this technology-driven approach to cultural heritage.

Plants and insects are the key members of food webs because they are not only abundant and diverse, but they also provide food for many other animals higher up the food chain. We talk with Moria Robinson, Assistant Professor of Biology at Utah State University, about variations in these food webs as climate in the western U.S. dries and warms. In particular, we look at the interactions of rabbit brush and caterpillars.

Utah is home to over 800 rock glaciers. These masses of ice covered with rock debris are key to perennial streams and alpine biodiversity, but they are poorly understood. We talk with Scott Hotaling, Assistant Professor in the Department of Watershed Sciences at Utah State University, who is studying the rare stonefly in order to gain understanding of how alpine streams are faring as glaciers recede under a warming and drying climate.

Sunset Crater, the most recent cinder cone in the San Francisco Volcanic Field, is estimated to have erupted between A.D. 1085 and 1090. In areas where the resulting lava flows were greater than 30cm thick, people may have been forced to migrate, leaving behind long-established homesteads and agricultural fields. On the positive side, lower elevation areas with cinder fall in the range of 3-10 cm would have become more suitable for farming, due to the beneficial effects of the cinder mulch. We talk with Volcanologist Michael Ort, who, together with a team of scientists, has unraveled the timing of these events and the implications of volcanic activity for humans at the time.

This show is part of a series exploring Science Moab’s School to Science Program, connecting students with scientists in the field, the lab, and beyond. This program began in 2021 and to date has mentored over 57 local students. In this episode, we talk with mentor Mary Langworthy, Public Programs Manager at the Moab Museum, and Klayre Humphreys, junior at Grand County High School. Mary has sponsored several day long job shadows with local students facilitated by Science Moab. Klayre spent a day at the museum with Mary in the spring of 2024 and ended up delving into the world of shark teeth which ultimately helped Moab Museum staff update and enhance their exhibit.

As photosynthesis happens, trees take in carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the form of sugars or carbohydrates. These sugars can be stored for many years in trees as a sort of “memory” and used to support their growth and metabolism during times of stress, like a drought. We talk with Drew Peltier, ecophysiologist and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Drew’s interests and research center on understanding how climate influences tree growth in our changing environment.