Urban Growth and Wasatch Wildlife

Wasatch Wildlife Watch

A moose triggering a Wasatch Wildlife Watch camera.

A moose triggering a Wasatch Wildlife Watch camera.

It's no secret that development in the Wasatch is booming.

With an urban population predicted to grow by 40% in the next 25 years and some of the most heavily recreated public lands in the nation, the area's native wildlife and habitats are facing serious threats.

In the face of this reality, urban development that considers the needs of both human and wildlife residents is vital for the health of the area. This kind of development planning requires spatial data on wildlife distribution and movement—however, baseline data like these are currently lacking.

To meet this immense need and create a better future for our native wildlife, Wild Utah Project and our partners at the University of Utah Biodiversity and Conservation Ecology Lab and Natural History Museum of Utah began the Wasatch Wildlife Watch in 2018.

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The project involves experts and trained community scientists deploying and monitoring cameras around the Wasatch from May to August each year. Images are then analyzed to understand and map the resident wildlife populations and their movement patterns.

What This Project Could Mean

With these data, land and wildlife management agencies, local government, and other stakeholders will be enabled to make development decisions that consider native wildlife and habitat. Results could include:

  • Development avoided in areas with concentrated wildlife traffic and important habitat

  • Proposals for wildlife overpasses/underpasses made in areas with high numbers of human-wildlife collisions

  • New roads designed around wildlife movement corridor data

A Major Success

In 2019, over 100 volunteers donated more than 1,400 hours of their time making the Wasatch Wildlife Watch possible.

Support Wildlife in the Wasatch

As we head into the new year, we're working to ensure that Wasatch Wildlife Watch continues offering a voice for our wild neighbors who, though often invisible to human residents, can be hugely impacted by development decisions.

Mule deer get up close with one of our cameras.

Mule deer get up close with one of our cameras.

The end of the year is a perfect opportunity to be the advocate our native wildlife need.

A monthly commitment of $10, $25, $75, or another amount is an easy, automatic way to make sure our lands and wildlife have the consistent support they depend on.

Will you commit to Utah's wildlife by becoming a monthly donor?

Visit our website to begin your monthly gift.

Sarah Woodbury