The Little Colorado River (LCR) is a culturally and spiritually significant drainage for many people in the southwest. The LCR also provides sediment load to the main stem of the Colorado River for the production of sandbars downstream AND it is an important spawning ground for and home to the largest population of Humpback Chub. We talk with Phoeb…

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…

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 C…

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…

For the past three years, the Nature Conservancy has hosted a small cohort of Indigenous college students at their Canyonlands Research Center in southeast Utah. The program, known as N.A.T.U.R.E. (Native American Tribes Upholding Restoration & Education), seeks to empower the next generation of science and conservation leaders on the Colorado Plat…

Can the simple beauty of an organism be enough to want to restore and preserve it? If so, Aspen would be at the top of that list. So much more than a beautiful tree, a stand or group of aspen trees is considered a singular organism with the main life force underground in the extensive root system. We talk with Paul Rogers, professor and Director of…

Ever wonder how those amazing dinosaur bones make it from being embedded in rock to a museum where they are flawlessly displayed within a complete skeleton? Natalie Toth knows. Natalie is the Chief Preparator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and her job begins with a chainsaw in the field and ends with a fully prepared fossil display. We ta…

Cirsium scopulorum, or mountain thistle, was long thought to be the only species of thistle occurring in the alpine tundra. Molecular, morphological, and geographical evidence now support the recognition of many species of thistles in the alpine tundra of the southern Rocky Mountains. We talk with Jennifer Ackerfield, the head curator of natural hi…

Increased visitation and recreation in the desert inevitably leads to more human-generated noise. We talk with Joel Berger, University Chair in Wildlife Conservation at Colorado State University, about how this noise may or may not be affecting the iconic desert bighorn sheep. More specifically, we discuss how the noise may lead to increased prenat…

Given the increasing temperatures and aridity, the fate of pinyon-juniper woodlands on the Colorado Plateau is uncertain. We talk with Rebecca Finger-Higgens, Ecologist with the US Geological Survey, about the recovery of the pinyon-juniper woodlands in the La Sal Mountains following the Pack Creek Fire of 2021. Rebecca tackles the question of whet…

Here in SE Utah, we are living in a geologically young, rapidly eroding landscape and we have the Colorado River to thank for sculpting such a beautiful and dynamic area. We talk with Joel Pederson, professor and Department Head of Geomorphology at Utah State University about his continuing research on incision rates of the Colorado River across th…

High alpine talus slopes are home to a myriad of creatures, namely mountain goats and American pikas, both specialists in alpine habitats. We talk with Mallory Sandoval Lambert, whose curiosity about the interactions between these two mammalian herbivores led her to study their behaviors in the LaSal Mountains. Understanding these interactions will…

Around the world, civilizations have literally been built on rock and the specific rock type of an area has definite influences on that society. Science Moab talks with wildlife and science documentary writer, Gautier Dubois, whose recent work, Top of the Rocks, will be featured at this year’s Moab Festival of Science. Each episode of this 5-part s…

On October 14, 2023, an annular solar eclipse will cross North, Central, and South America. Parts of SE Utah will be in the direct path of the eclipse. We talk with Cris White, Eclipse Coordinator for the Earth to Sky Interagency Partnership, about the uniqueness of eclipses and the many scientific activities that will be happening in conjunction w…

Sedimentologists are geologists that study rocks on the earth’s surface today in order to interpret ancient depositional environments. By studying deposits of river gravels, Andre Potochnik has been able to determine major changes in the drainages on the southern part of the Colorado Plateau. We talk with Andre about his work in Arizona on the Apac…

Drylands encompass over 40% of terrestrial ecosystems and face significant degradation from a warming/drying climate and overuse. To combat this degradation, some restoration efforts have focused on the use of biological soil crusts (biocrusts): complex communities of cyanobacteria, algae, lichens, bryophytes, and other organisms living in associat…

Rivers have a magic way of healing, transforming and inspiring. From the calmest riffle to barnstorming haystacks, rivers always have rapids. This is how the river transfers energy. Monte Tillinghast grew up on rivers and has spent most of his adult years rowing the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. He knows a thing or two about rapids and has a gracio…

Aside from the inherent beauty of a pinon-juniper ecosystem, the health of such woodlands are tied to broader climate swings. This is the awareness that the project Sentinels hopes to bring to light. The brainchild of Todd Anderson, Bruce Crownover, and Gary Machlis, the Sentinels project uses art+science to showcase the pinon-juniper adaptation to…

While modern day river systems are highly engineered to efficiently move water, this is not necessarily a “healthy” condition. Joe Wheaton, a fluvial geomorphologist and Professor of Riverscapes at Utah State University, works to better understand the dynamics of fluvial environments and their subsequent management and restoration. We talk with Joe…

There has been a long history of climate transitions in the southwest and the people who have lived in this region for tens of thousands of years have dealt with this climate change through time, especially with adaptations of their food systems. We talk with Kyle Bocinsky whose specialty is paleoclimate reconstruction, and specifically, looking at…

A series of linear roads were built around 1000 years ago all over the four corners area, but focusing on the Chaco Canyon region. We talk with Rob Weiner – archaeologist, anthropologist, and student of religion – whose research at the University of Colorado in Boulder focuses on monumental roads that the ancestors of the Pueblo and Diné people bui…

The sagebrush ecosystem in Utah and the greater Western U.S. is actually its own biome, or biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which it is found. There is more sagebrush in the West than forest. We talk with Adam Mahood of the USDA Agricultural Research Center about his work with sagebrush ecosystems in t…

Brendan Moore was one of the first round of Grand County High School students to participate in Science Moab's School to Science program, which pairs GCHS students with scientists for mentorship opportunities in the field and the lab. In this high-level internship, Brendan received guidance on how to develop his own research question and experiment…

Moab is known as a Colorado River town, but the key to its existence is the LaSal Mountains. With peaks over 12,000’, the LaSal Mountains contain the snowpack that recharges several aquifers that produce potable water for Moab. Hydrogeologist Tom Lachmar talks about the path water takes from the high peaks of the LaSals to the Colorado River. We al…

With a warmer and drier climate dominating the Colorado Plateau, traditional cattle ranching has its challenges. We talk with Utah State University PhD students Will Munger and Maria Stahl about their work at the Dugout Ranch in San Juan County, UT. The Criollo cattle, first brought to the New World by Christopher Columbus, are more adapted to arid…

We talk with author, photographer, and conservationist Jonathan Bailey about his latest work, “When I Was Red Clay”. Jonathan writes about his struggles growing up and how the natural world, namely the deserts of southern Utah, provided solace. Amongst the many essays in the book, we talk about the colors of the desert, dragonflies, and preserving …

Consider making a map of land use issues across the Bears Ears National Monument. This is what Gustavo Ovando-Montejo, Assistant Professor at USU Blanding, is working on. Gustavo uses geography and social science to understand landscapes and how people interact with them.저자 Kristina Young

Over 65 million years ago, a seaway existed across North America from the present-day Gulf of Mexico to present-day Alaska. Peter Flaig, Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology in Austin, TX, has studied the geology of this seaway by looking at deposits from the southwest US into Canada and Alaska. We talk with Peter about the margin o…

The historic distribution of wolves includes most if not all of Utah. As wolves migrate out of the Yellowstone reintroduction area, their numbers expand both to the north and south. We talk with Kirk Robinson, founder and executive director of Western Wildlife Conservancy, about what wolves are doing, the ecosystems they live in, and what it might …

This is the second part of a two part series on the science of fire brought to you by our partners at Utah Tech University and the Southern Utah Science Cafe. This discussion was captured live early in 2022 in St. George, UT and pertains to the impacts of wildfires on the land and its inhabitants. Panel members include Greg Melton (Utah Tech Univer…

This is the first part of a two part series on the science of fire brought to you by our partners at Utah Tech University and the Southern Utah Science Cafe. This discussion was captured live early in 2022 in St. George, UT and pertains to the impacts of wildfires on the land and its inhabitants. Panel members include Greg Melton (Utah Tech Univers…

Whether on rock or vegetation, lichen can be found all around us and play surprising and complex roles. Steve Leavitt, an evolutionary biologist at Brigham Young University, is the curator of the lichen collection at BYU’s Life Science Museum. We talk with Steve about what lichen are composed of and why we should care about these colorful and uniqu…

There are lots of myths and misinformation surrounding rattlesnakes and snakes in general. We talk with Scott Gibson, Wildlife Conservation Biologist for the Southeastern Region with the Utah Division of Wildlife (UDWR), about his research and interest in rattlesnakes. Scott sets the record straight on many of the common falsehoods about rattlesnak…

Michael Remke, a researcher and lecturer at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, identifies the connections native plant communities have with their mycorrhizae (plant root associated fungi). We talk about how he applies this research to reforesting programs, rebuilding and replanting after high-intensity disturbance events, and utilizing next-genera…

Beginning in 2001, an executive order mandated that the Bureau of Land Management consider climate change in their reports and their management planning. We talk with wildlife ecologist Lainie Brice about a project she was a part of for the climate adaptation science program at Utah State University. A key feature of this project was looking at the…

Biomass is anything that has ever grown or anything organic from bugs, to animals, to plants, and everything in between Darren McAvoy, Extension assistant professor at Utah State University, is a forester by trade and the chair and co-founder of Utah biomass resources group. We talk with him about biomass and the product, biochar, and how he is wor…

When considering sources of greenhouse gases, lakes and reservoirs may not immediately come to mind, but they are a significant part of the global greenhouse gas budget. Bridget Deemer is a research ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center. Her research aims to understand how human activities are affecti…

Our partners in St. George, UT at the Southern Utah Science Cafe bring you this week's podcast. Scientists Jerry Harris and Lura Snow talk about the geology in Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and the critical habitat for the desert tortoise.저자 Kristina Young

Many plants can thrive through drought and other stresses because of their associated fungi. We talk with Catherine Gehring, the Lucking Family Professor at Northern Arizona University (NAU), who has been studying plant-associated fungi for more than 20 years. The Gehring Lab at NAU conducts research to understand the functioning of fungi and how t…

The Glen Canyon Dam disturbed the balance of many natural processes in the Grand Canyon stretch of the Colorado River. Here we talk with geologist and fluvial geomorphologist, Katie Chapman about the effect the dam has had on sandbars downstream. By understanding how the sand is (or is not) moving through the canyon, Katie is working to try and res…

Tara Gatewood understands the power of Indigenous radio. As longtime host of "Native America Calling", Tara was part of a communal place where native voices were heard. Here, we speak with Tara, an award winning veteran journalist and enrolled Citizen of the Pueblo of Isleta/Diné, who is now the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Director of …

Dawn Davis of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall, Idaho studies the sustainability of ethno-significant plants. Her work is trying to deter people from harming culturally important plants by helping others understand the impacts on plant populations and the Indigenous cultures that have had direct relationships for thousands of years. Here, S…

Science Moab talks with Ann Marie Chischilly, Executive Director at the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP). In addition to the advocacy work she does at the national and international level, Chischilly works with ITEP to address climate change in Tribal communities and works in academia to Indigenizing higher education.…

This week we talk with Reagan Wytsalucy about traditional foods on the Colorado Plateau. Reagan is actively working to reestablish agriculture and the traditional food crops in native communities, and is specifically looking at peaches as the beginning food crop to identify, locate, and bring back to four corners communities.…

Native communities have land management objectives that stem from traditional ecological knowledge and deep connections to land. Jaime Yazzie has been asking how traditional knowledge held within her Diné community can inform management in Navajo Nation forests. Yazzie's work on Tribal forests emphasizes Diné concepts of kinships and here she expla…

All About the Bees by Kristina Young저자 Kristina Young

When it comes to the Colorado RIver Basin, the management of resources must consider the scale at which effects are felt. We talk with Lucas Bair, economist with the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center in Flagstaff, AZ. His work deals with the monitoring and researching resources downstream from Glen Canyon Dam and also provides science to fed…

There are many efforts going on within the national parks of the Southwest to restore degraded ecosystems. From using biological controls, to weeding and seeding, to anticipating the effects of climate change, the national parks of southeastern Utah are actively being managed to return or maintain ecological function. Here, we speak with NPS ecolog…

Horses evolved in the North American landscape but went functionally extinct towards the end of the Pleistocene. Horses were then re-introduced to North American and many have become wild on western ranges. Their numbers are growing and so is the damage they are causing. We talk with range scientist Eric Thacker about the growing number of wild hor…

Aquatic insects can be used as bio-indicators of how a river’s ecosystem is doing. In the case of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, these insects are being severely affected by the Glen Canyon Dam. We talk with ecologist and bug lover Anya Metcalfe about her research with aquatic invertebrates in the Grand Canyon and how this might help …