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May 2023 CNHA Newsletter

  • Utah Avalanche Center Wraps up a Big Season⁠
  • Bureau of Land Management Mascots and Logos Through the Years⁠
  • White Rim Road Expected to Flood in Canyonlands⁠
  • MIC Free Lecture Series⁠
  • Timed Entry at Arches NP⁠
  • Community Artist in the Parks Schedule⁠

Read the May 2023 Newsletter

 

 

April 2023 CNHA Newsletter

  • 2023 Artist in the Parks
  • Bureau of Land Management Canyon Country District Artist in Residence
  • MIC Lecture Series is Back
  • Winter Conditions in Manti-La Sal National Forest
  • National Park Week April 22-30

Read the April 2023 Newsletter

 

 

March 2023 CNHA Newsletter

  • Bears Ears Interdisciplinary Team Receives Honor Award
  • Timed Entry at Arches National Park
  • Understanding the Arches of Arches
  • Updates from Canyon Country Bureau of Land Management
  • Winter Conditions Persist in Local Mountain Ranges

Read the March 2023 Newsletter

 

 

February 2023 CNHA Newsletter

  • Hovenweep National Monument’s Centennial Celebration
  • CNHA Discovery Pool Grants Awarded for 2023
  • Timed Entry at Arches National Park
  • Science on Tap
  • Great Snowpack in the La Sal Mountains
  • BLM Proposes Rule to Limit Roped and Aerial Recreations to Protect Wildlife in Mineral and Hell Roaring Canyons

Read the February 2023 Newsletter

 

 

January 2023 CNHA Newsletter

  • A Message from Roxanne, CNHA Executive Director
  • What You Helped CNHA Accomplish
  • A Successful Year for Discovery Pool
  • January Science on Tap with Science Moab
  • Timed Entry at Arches

Read the January 2023 Newsletter

 

 

December 2022 CNHA Newsletter

  • Lifetime Pass for Military Veterans and Gold Star Families to Access Public Lands
  • 2023 Community Artist in the Parks Announced
  • CNHA Sponsors Science Moab’s Science on Tap
  • Christmas Tree Permits Available Online
  • Winter Campground Closures

Read the December 2022 Newsletter

 

 

November 2022 CNHA Newsletter

  • Discovery Pool Update: Ecological Interactions Between American Pikas and Mountain Goats
  • Thoughts from a Student Intern
  • New Science Helps Predict Smoke Movement Quantifies Impacts to Health
  • Discovery Pool Lecture at the MIC

Read the November 2022 Newsletter

 

 

Discovery Pool Update: Mallory Sandoval Lambert (2022)

The second season of fieldwork for my Ph.D. project was partially supported by the Discovery Pool grant from Canyonlands Natural History Association in partnership with the US Forest Service. I am conducting
a multi-level, field-based study to document potential ecological interactions between mountain goats and American pikas: two mammalian herbivores that are specialists in alpine habitats. Understanding these interactions will have important implications for the conservation of each species. Such data will be particularly useful for both pika conservation and agencies tasked with managing the land that introduced mountain goat herds inhabit.

The Specific Aims of my research this summer was to:
1) Evaluate mountain goat use of pika-occupied talus habitat using GPS telemetry data from multiple subpopulations for habitat selection function analysis.
2) Compare forage utilization between goats and pikas. Test for evidence of competition or facilitation using a replicated three-plot semipermeable exclosure design. Additionally, test for ecosystem-level feedback loops in herbivore-plant interactions that might influence forage quality for both species around pika-inhabited talus slopes.
3) Assess risk-sensitive foraging by pikas by testing whether pika giving up distance varies with (a) mountain goat pellet density, (b) vegetation coverage of soil, and (c) mountain goat visitation based on GPS data.
4) Review the ecological interactions between pikas and mountain goats, and the management options for both, in the context of conserving the biodiversity of alpine habitats of the Colorado Plateau.

Great progress was made this summer toward completing these aims. I worked with two field research technicians to finish installing grazing exclosures. We now have a total of 10 exclosure sites each with two exclosure plots and one reference plot installed. At the end of the growing season in September, I went back into the field with one technician and several volunteers to clip the vegetation in all of our experimental plots and sample two soil samples at each site (one near the talus edge and one in an alpine meadow far from the talus edge).

This fall I will dry, weigh, and compare the clipped vegetation from each site. This will serve as a baseline measurement of above-ground biomass for the final analysis. The soil samples will soon be sent to the Soil Lab at USU to be tested for soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, sodium, and ph using funds from the Discovery Pool grant. To monitor visitation rates to our experimental plots by pikas and goats, we deployed two camera traps at each site and are in the beginning stages of processing them. Additionally, we collected over 400 observations for pika giving up distance and conducted four vegetation/goat sign transects at each of our exclosure sites (Specific Aim 3). Currently, I am preparing mountain goat GPS and GIS data to run a preliminary habitat selection analysis (Specific Aim 1).

 

October 2022 CNHA Newsletter

  • CNHA funds BLM Artist in Residence
  • Manti-La Sal Update
  • Timed entry pilot concludes at Arches National Park
  • National Public Lands Day Celebration Event 2022 Update

Read the October 2022 Newsletter

 

 

September 2022 CNHA Newsletter

  • Arches National Park James Webb Space Telescope Event
  • Floods in the Moab area
  • Local River Ranger Wins National Award
  • 2023 Artist in the Parks Applications
  • Seasonal Climbing Restrictions Lifted
  • Manti-La Sal Update

Read the September 2022 Newsletter

 

 

Moab Information Center 2023 Lecture Series

Visit our MIC Lecture Series page to see this years lineup!