Sagebrush once stretched across almost 500,000 square miles from the Dakotas to California. Each year, a million acres is lost to invasive species, catastrophic wildfire, development, improper grazing and climate change.  Matt Cahill is the director of the Sagebrush Sea program for The Nature Conservancy.  Matt advocates that scientific solutions and large-scale collaboration are needed to reverse the trend in sagebrush. We talk with Matt about what is being done to save this vital landscape.

The Space between the Mountains

It is well known at this point that humans are using more water out of the Colorado River, then the river can support…for humans as well as other life forms that live along and within the river. Agriculture is using approximately 80% of that water.   We talk with Aaron Derwingson, Water Projects Director of the Colorado River Program for the Nature Conservancy.  Aaron and his team do freshwater conservation restoration projects across the whole Colorado River Basin, involving a combination of work from science and policy to direct project work on the grounds. By working to build relationships with the agricultural community, the team hopes to help ensure that there are sufficient water supplies for both people and nature.

Working Together for River Conservation

Rangelands are vast, natural grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that support grazing and browsing mammals and they are primarily natural ecosystems with native vegetation.These rangelands can become degraded by fire or improper grazing. We talk with Kari Veblen, professor of Rangeland Ecology at Utah State University about her research that focuses on the ecology and management of rangelands.  Her research emphasizes multi-use landscapes, public and private, that are managed simultaneously for wildlife conservation and sustainable livestock production.  The ultimate goal of her work is to inform sustainable management of rangeland ecosystems.

Restoration on the Range

Dadang

From the perspective of an archaeologist, the physical body of an ancient person is a gift because a body is a time capsule of the past.  They lived in that space and that time, and their bodies are manifestations of what was there.  We talk with archaeologist Erin Baxter, teacher and Curator of Anthropology at Denver Museum of Nature and Science, about her work unraveling the ancient southwest culture and her fascination with the archaeology of death.

Finding Collaboration and Trust Uncovering the Past

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.

Memory In Trees

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.

Living with Volcanoes

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.

Rock Glaciers and Water Sustainability

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.

Understanding Threats to Old Growth Ponderosa Pines

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.

Backyard Creek Restoration

A podcast exploring the science and learning about the scientists from southeast Utah and the Colorado Plateau. Produced by Science Moab, KZMU, and USU Extension

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