springtime in the wasatch

It's been a while since we posted. Springtime has fully hit the Wasatch and we've been busy trying to make the most of our weekends. During that in between stretch of not enough snow to ski, but too much to hike, it seems like the snow piles are never going to leave the street. But of course they finally do, snow is gone, river is raging, trees have leafed out and the hummingbirds are back. We have two feeders that these guys can go through in a day. Our sugar usage increases significantly this time of year, but it's worth it to watch 3 different types of hummingbirds zooming all around, fighting for territory (these guys can be mean!) then sitting peacefully together for a few seconds to drink some food before starting territory battles all over again.

I had thought that when we moved to Utah, that it was a place where it doesn't rain very much. I thought I had left the springtime rain behind in Oregon. Somehow though in the last 6 weekends, I think we've had 2 dry ones! We were both pretty grumpy on Friday evening when we checked the forecast and found that it was supposed to rain, pretty much everywhere in Utah, the whole long weekend! In spite of a 60% chance on Saturday and 40% on Monday, we drove down to Maple Canyon both days which has the craziest cobblestone conglomerate rock for supper fun climbing. It drizzled a bit on us, but we were climbing in the pipeline which is mostly overhanging so it stayed mostly dry. We were reminded that Maple is a good place to wear helmets or leg guards rather as we saw a woman get hit in the calf by a rolling rock then Matt get hit in the thigh from a rock whizzing down from somewhere above. No major harm done in either case, just some nice bruises, but a little bit of a wake up call. We were both projecting some harder climbs, which we didn't quite get cleanly, but made good progress on.



A couple weekends ago we went down to Cedar City with the club to climb at Pocket Rocks. As you can guess, the rock is full of pockets and quite fun to climb on. It's a bit like Smith Rocks, only much smaller and less spectacular. After 3 days of chasing lizards in the sun, Mojo slept for 4 days straight, but is now fully recovered and disappointed we did not go to a lizard filled spot this weekend, only the typical birds and squirrels which aren't nearly as exciting.

One of the best parts about spring where we live is the alpine loop road. It's closed all winter about 2 miles above our place, so great cross country skiing in the winter. This time of year, it's still closed for a few more weeks, but the road is still closed, so we have our own mostly private access for running and hiking where we can watch spring in all different stages as we go up in elevation. In a few weeks, it will be full of tourists again, but it will mean we can access some of our favorite trails and make it over the mountain to American Fork.

That's the highlights of spring in the Wasatch, we're hoping it stays spring a bit longer before switching to the blazing heat of summer. Matt's much better at keeping pictures updated on our flickr website, than we have been with the blog, so check our flickr page out when you get a chance.

Hi All (Matt here adding my comments)

Since our last post most of what we've been doing is bouldering and climbing. Little Cottonwood has great bouldering and Triassic (our weekend getaway) has been terrific even though the weather in the mountains has been rainy and unclimbable. We've been to Ibex as well. During the evenings we've been going to Rock Canyon a good bit and pretty soon American Fork will be a more frequented destination. As far as sending goes it's been a great spring. Cassie onsighted or flashed all of her problems at Pocket Rocks, and I've been sending some of my hardest boulder problems. V6s are getting a bit easier and I'm hoping to send a V7 before the end of the year.



Right now we're both projecting hard routes at Maple. Cassie has her sights set on an 11b pumpy overhanging route at the Pipeline and I'm trying a 11d and a 12b which are also at the Pipeline. Cassie took two lead falls today and I think she's making great progress controlling her fear of falling. I think next weekend the 11s we will probably send and maybe I'll make some progress on my 12. It's funny how climbing works. Even though Cassie and I are both capable of climbing 5.12 it takes a lot of work and effort to complete a problem. For those of you who are not familiar with climbing lingo a "send" is the ability on lead (lead means you are not on toprope) to climb a route without hanging on any of your gear from the ground up and without falling. Many people can climb super hard on toprope, but the true test of your ability is to lead.


In other news we went to the San Rafael Swell and Goblin Valley a few weekends ago. We went to a place called Eardley Canyon and the "Amazing Pool" (seriously that's the name of the pool). It was a beatiful weekend and we had a great time even though Cassie was pretty sick.


So, we're still having fun and loving our lives here in Utah. Hope everyone else out there is well!

snakes and frogs

Last week, I was out in southeast Utah looking for rattlesnake dens. Not something I really thought I'd be doing ever. I've seen plenty of rattlesnakes and am not overly afraid of them, but looking for them as they emerge from their dens has never been something that has crossed my mind as a good thing to do. It was quite an interesting experience as we went out with one of my co-workers who has been with the state for over 30 years. He is an amazing photographer and would frequently go out to photograph these snakes, but was afraid that when he retired, the knowledge of where the dens are would go with him. The location of dens is something we don't publicize, since a lot of people really really don't like snakes. Apparently a popular Easter activity at one of these sites is to go out for a picnic and shoot snakes. Other sites that are close to campgrounds and tourist attractions, other agencies have spent a great deal of time and effort to remove the snakes. And by remove, that does mean kill. If you move a rattlesnake somewhere within the range of it's den, it will just come back. If you move it a few miles away outside the range of it's den, it will just circle, looking for the den and die when winter comes and it can't find it. In spite of the general public's love of snakes, we were able to find quite a few. As the weather starts getting warmer in the spring, the snakes come out to the mouth of their den and warm in the sun for a few days while still going back in at night. Once they're good and warm for a few days, they leave and don't come back to that spot until the fall. We didn't see more than 6 or 8 at any one spot, but apparently if you hit it at the right time, you can see hundreds of snakes leaving their den at the same time.

Thursday and Friday, Tyrone Hayes was in salt Lake. He is one of the leading scientists looking at the use of the pesticide Atrizine and how it is one of the factors in global amphibian declines. Atrizine which is used primarily on corn and in forestry after clear cutting causes feminization of male frogs and makes them more likely to get other diseases and deformities. This alone was interesting to me, but Tyrone Hayes is one of the best speakers I have heard in a long time. As scientists, we often hear that we should be unbiased scientists and just let the science speak for itself. But when the chemical industry and federaly regulatory agencies who we trust to keep us safe turn a blind eye to very convincing science, that can be hard to do. Not only does this chemical make hermaphrodite frogs, it lowers sperm count in humans and has been linked to increased rates of breast and prostrate cancer in humans. Tyrone does and amazing job of making the science understandable and relevant to non-scientists and also brings in the human and social justice aspect. The people who have the highest exposure to atrizine are usually migrant workes and other low income minorities working in the fields and in the factory. Check out his website atrizinelovers.com for more information, and if you ever get the chance to hear him speak. Go! He can explain this far better and in a more interesting way than I can. He is the only scientist I've ever heard, conclude and summarize his talk in a spoken word / rap and actually be able to pull something like that off.

San Juan River

Last week, I got out for a rare week of field work on the San Juan River. The unfortunate thing about moving up in the world of biology is that you seem to get further and further away from what it was that got you into the job in the first place, being in the field.

The San Juan River flows through the very southeastern corner of Utah ending at the eastern end of Lake Powell. The headwaters are in the San Juan mountains in Colorado, so while where we were floating was very much the desert, the river is fed by distant snowfall. And like all the rest of the major rivers in the West, the flows are regulated by dams.

My trip down the San Juan was for the San Juan River Recovery Program. The San Juan is home to two endangered fish, the Colorado pikeminnow and the razorback sucker as well as three native fish which are not endangered, but are considered tier 1 or the most sensitive by Utah, the bluehead sucker, flannelmouth sucker and roundtail chub. The Colorado pikeminnow can grow up to 6 feet long, although fish this large have not been seen for many years. The razorback sucker is aptly named with a prominent, narrow ridge between its head and dorsal fin. Historically, these big river fish, especially the pikeminnow migrated hundreds of miles to their spawning grounds. Now their accessible spawning areas are much reduced by both large dams, small diversions and in the tributaries a complete dewatering. Although some of us may wish for the dams not to be there, the big ones we have are not going anywhere anytime soon and the goal of the recovery programs is to recover the species while still allowing for water development. It may seem like these are pretty contradictory goals, and in my more cynical thoughts, they very much are, but the reality is that humans need water too and while we definitely should be using it wiser than we often do, we do get water in the river and for the fish from these dams too. Part of the recovery program is flow requirements for critical habitat that requires minimum flows and flows that mimic a natural hydrograph during critical times for the fish.

Another major threat facing these fish, is the introduction of non-native fish. In the San Juan, the primary culprit is the channel catfish. I believe this was introduced to the San Juan through its stocking as a sport fish into Lake Powell and other reservoirs. The catfish provides a double whammy to the pikeminnow. Large catfish are very predacious on smaller native fish and while pikeminnow are also predators and eat small catfish, the catfish have spines which can get stuck in the pikeminnow as they are trying to eat it and can kill the pikeminnow.

So, the purpose of this and many trips down the San Juan, Green and Colorado Rivers is non-native removal by electroshocking. What this consists of on these large rivers is a crew of at least 5 people, 3 boats (2 electroshockers and 1 gear boat). The electroshocking boats are set up to send a current into the water at a voltage that stuns the fish, but doesn't cause any long-term harm. One person rows, keeping the boat as near the bank as possible while another stands at the front of the boat with a net, netting up all the non-native and endangered fish they see. The non-natives are counted, measured and removed from the system, while the endangereds are scanned for a tag, measured, weighed and returned to the river. The tag has an unique number so we can tell where it has moved from and how much it has grown.

The trip down the San Juan is beautiful and is very popular with recreational boaters, due to a fairly peaceful float through tall canyons of limestone and sandstone. There are a number of side canyons and hikes to explore as well. Unfortunately for a work trip, while it is still beautiful and enjoyable, you don't get to sit back and enjoy the scenery too much. You are either focused on rowing (trying to keep the boat near the shore without running into the shore, rocks or trees, while keeping your eye out for fish and turning the boat in whatever direction the fish are so they can be netted) or standing at the front of the boat, focused on the water in front of you ready to lunge with your net when something pops-up for sometimes just a second before it sinks back into the silty water. Another treat for all on the San Juan, is the last 12 or so miles which were inundated by Lake Powell when it was full. This deposited a lot of sand and left a nice bathtub line on the rocks. This stretch of the river is very flat and slow and you have to keep your eyes peeled for where it is deep enough so you don't get stuck in the sand bars. On my trip, this was also the day it was rainy, snowy and very windy, and the wind always blows upstream. This meant sometimes you were rowing as hard as you could just to stay still.

In spite of the wind and cold weather, it was a great trip. We removed a few thousand catfish, recaptured a few hundred pikeminnow, and a handful of razorback suckers. As far as the non-native removal goes, the San Juan is a place where we actually seem to be making some progress, over the last couple years, the catfish we catch are smaller and fewer. The San Juan is also being helped out by the drought in this aspect too. When Lake Powell receded from its full height, it created a waterfall about 10 miles downstream from where you take out from the river. This waterfall is preventing any additional catfish from invading as well as all of the other non-natives which are in Lake Powell. The downside is that any natives that go over this waterfall, are stuck downstream where they have little chance of surviving.

For me, this trip was a much needed reconnection with the river and reminder of why I spend most of my working hours in a office trying to help conserve our native fish.

*pictures will be coming soon, they're on a different computer