Canyonlands National Park

Bates E. Wilson

The Utah Geological Survey has worked in partnership with the National Park Service to document the fossils of Utah’s national parks for 20 years, helping to bring to light and protect a wide variety of fossils.

When the climate changes enough, the vegetation communities growing in any given place will also change. Under an expanded bimodal climate zone, some plant communities in western national parks are more likely to change than others. National Park Service ecologists and partners investigated the future conditions that may force some of this change. Having this information can help park managers decide whether to resist, direct, or accept the change.

The results of a recent study may help land managers to prioritize grassland conservation and restoration efforts. Park managers can’t do much about climate, but with the right information, they can make choices based on how different grassland communities behave in different soil types. In this study, cool-season grasses showed more resilience to drought than warm-season grasses.

Capitol Reef National Park’s bighorn sheep herd grew almost fourfold since being introduced from Canyonlands over two decades ago. Now the herd is at risk from a debilitating disease.

In 2005, visitors to the Great Gallery discovered a leather bag eroding from eolian sand. Fearing unlawful removal of the bag, a park ranger recovered the item on the day of its discovery. The authors, from the Navajo Nation Archeology Department obtained the bag and its contents on loan from the National Park Service to conduct the analysis reported here.

Some diseases can be passed from animals to humans. Never approach wildlife and learn other ways to protect yourself from animal-transmitted diseases in Southeast Utah parks.

The author describes what he saw in the weeks he spent informally observing desert bighorn sheep during the 2020 pandemic closure in Canyonlands National Park.

Be careful where you step because the dirt is alive! This bumpy, lumpy, crust black soil is called biological soil crust and is made up of living organisms.