environmental records

Protecting ecological legacies at Bears Ears

June 1, 2021

“The medicines on the landscape all have a story. The original proposal to designate 1.9 million acres for Bears Ears National Monument came from listening to the elders and medicine people who mapped culturally significant plants to protect our narratives. In terms of management, traditional knowledge is crucial to protect the entire ecosystem as a cultural living landscape…”

Cynthia Wilson, director of the Traditional Foods Program for Utah Diné Bikéyah
 and member of the Navajo (Diné) Nation.

 

A new study by GCSC-affiliated faculty Brian Codding, Lisbeth Louderback, and colleagues draws on ecology, archaealogy, and indigenous knowledge can guide resource management in the Bears Ears region.

Below is an exerpt from the full story in At the U:

Indigenous people have lived in the Bears Ears region of southeastern Utah for millennia. Ancestral Pueblos built elaborate houses, check dams, agricultural terraces and other modifications of the landscape, leaving ecological legacies that persist to this day…

For the first time, a new study evaluated ecological legacies, archaeo-ecosystem restoration and Indigenous co-management practices in the Bears Ears region on the Colorado Plateau. The study published on May 17, 2021 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Bears Ears is not just about boundaries, it’s about management,” said the study’s lead author Bruce Pavlik, director of conservation at Red Butte Garden. “And it’s not just about artifacts. It’s also about the archaeo-ecosystems that are there. That’s what’s sacred to Native people.”

The authors surveyed 25 archaeological sites in the Bears Ears region that represented a wide range of locations, environments and archaeological complexity. By collecting plant specimens found at those sites, they compiled a list of 117 culturally significant plant species—those used for food, medicinal, ceremonial and utilitarian purposes by the Hopi Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Apache Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and the Navajo (Diné) Nation who trace ancestry to or currently reside in the region…

“What Tribal members have said all along is that you don’t just preserve the archaeological site,” said Lisbeth Louderback, curator of archaeology and director of the archaeobotany lab at the Natural History Museum of Utah and anthropologist at the University of Utah. “You have to preserve the entire resource space around the site, including the plants. Building a management plan incorporating both western science and traditional knowledge will get a full picture of the best way to take care of the resources and the monument.”

Indigenous land-use reduced catastrophic wildfires on the Fish Lake Plateau

April 15, 2021

Vachel Carter (2011-12 GCSC fellow) is the lead author on a paper resulting from a study that assesses the human influence on prehistoric wildfires. GCSC affiliate faculty from multiple disciplines who were part of the study are: Simon Brewer and Andrea Brunelle, Department of Geography; Brian Codding, Department of Anthropology; and Mitchell J. Power, Natural History Museum of Utah. Such interdisciplinary research is a key aim of the GCSC.

The following is excerpted from an article by Lisa Potter in At the U.

“The study is the first in the region to combine charcoal, pollen, tree ring and archeological site data together to assess the human influence on prehistoric wildfires. The multiple disciplines allowed the researchers to make connections that would otherwise have been impossible.“

 

“If you were to visit the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau a thousand years ago, you’d find conditions remarkably familiar to the present. The climate was warm but drier than today. There were large populations of Indigenous people known as the Fremont, who hunted and grew crops in the area. With similar climate and moderate human activity, you might expect to see the types of wildfires that are now common to the American West: infrequent, gigantic and devastating. But you’d be wrong.

“In a new study led by the University of Utah, researchers found that the Fremont used small, frequent fires, a practice known as cultural burning, which reduced the risk for large-scale wildfire activity in mountain environments on the Fish Lake Plateau—even during periods of drought more extreme and prolonged than today.

“…In Utah, many forests could benefit from frequent, smaller fires to mitigate wildfire risk. Perhaps one of the most urgent is in the Fish Lake National Forest that guards Pando, a stand of 47,000 aspen tree clones and the most massive organism on Earth. Pando has sat at the south end of Fish Lake for thousands of years, at least—some say the organism is a million years old. In recent years, the beloved grove has been shrinking. Low severity fires may help Pando, and other Utah forests, stay healthy.

” “Fuels on the Fish Lake landscape are at the highest that they’ve been in the last 1,200 years. The climate is much warmer than it was in the past. Our droughts have not been as intense as we’ve seen in the past, but they’re on their way,” Carter said. “The Fremont likely created long-lasting legacies on the Fish Lake Plateau through their cultural burning. Moving forward, ‘good fire,’ like prescribed fire, will be needed to mitigate against wildfire risk.” “

Good vibrations? Research on the stability of Utah’s iconic rock formations

September 22, 2016

Researcher Jeff Moore, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, seeks to determine the stability of formations such as the natural arches that draw visitors to Utah’s red rock country. Moore uses seismic and temperature gauges to to understand how arches respond to their environment. Temperature changes during the day cause arches to swell and contract. Vibrations from human activity can also be detected in the formations. Arches National Park rangers have reported the collapse of at least 43 natural arches since 1977, and Moore’s research can be used to assess the internal strength of such iconic landmarks.