Pausing to Reflect: Your Impact on Wildlife Last Year
Plus, meet our Volunteer of the Month, get involved in our projects, and check out an exhibit featuring one of our species of focus in Utah!
Volunteers survey for toads on our Boreal Toad Project. Photo: Sierra Hastings
Summer is a busy time, but pause with us and consider all that you've made possible for wildlife and conservation over the last year. Together, we:
Launched the first Intermountain West Shorebird Survey including Great Salt Lake in 30 years
Planted hundreds of trees and thousands of pollinator-friendly plants
Recorded four rare species habitats for pollinators in Utah, which are facing declines
...and much more!
Check out our 2022 Impact Report to reflect on everything you made possible on your favorite projects last year. Please reach out with any thoughts or questions. Thank you for all you do for our beloved land and wildlife in the West.
Wild World Exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah
Don't miss an exhibit featuring boreal toads, a species of focus in our Boreal Toad Project. Hosted by our partners at the Natural History Museum of Utah through November 5, the exhibit features hopeful conservation stories and incredible wildlife.
Check out the exhibit web page to learn more and purchase tickets.
Wildlife Need You This Summer
As usual, summer is moving at a pace with a vengeance! But it's not too late to get outdoors and support wildlife conservation. Visit our project pages below to learn what you can do to help.
Photo by Sierra Hastings
Photo by Janice Gardner
Boreal Toad Project: Look for boreal toads and their habitats in Utah. Great for those who like hiking! You can join a group on a field trip or do independent surveys.
Utah Pollinator Pursuit: Download an app and record bumblebees and butterfly species in decline, whether in your yard or on a hike. Accessible to all with mobile devices.
If you'd rather help from the comfort of your own home or library, check out our Wasatch Wildlife Watch Image Analysis project.
Volunteer of the Month: Esther Sumner
A big thank you to Esther Sumner, our Volunteer of the Month, a volunteer on our Shorebird Surveys, and an artist and photographer. Esther stepped up as the lead surveyor after her group's original team lead had to resign, seeing plovers, phalaropes, and more!
Esther says, "I'm so proud to have one of the major stopping points in the United States for shorebirds right in our own state. To me, the Great Salt Lake is a beautiful place but it's also a very big canary in a very big coal mine. The shorebird survey is an important indicator of how our environment is being affected and to help tell that story to a bigger audience."
Esther surveying for shorebirds at Lee Creek. Photo: Sierra Hastings
Our Ecologist Recommends: Helping Birds and Bugs from Your Backyard
Ecologist and Utah Pollinator Pursuit project lead Mary Pendergast recommends this interview with Doug Tallamy. A New York Times bestseller and entomology professor and founder of Homegrown National Park, Doug has been called the "expert on backyard conservation."
Mary says, "At around minute 38, Doug talks about what we can all do on our properties. If anyone feels overwhelmed about how an individual can possibly counter the species and natural habitat declines, please check out this hopeful and actionable approach!"
Sageland In the News: Shorebirds and Great Salt Lake
Communications & Development Specialist Sierra Hastings was interviewed on KRCL's RadioActive. With our partners at the National Audubon Society and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, she talks about the return of the Intermountain West Shorebird Survey after 30 years, why the survey is critical for birds at Great Salt Lake, and how volunteers can get involved.
Ecologist Janice Gardner was interviewed for a KSL.com story on Utah's record snowpack and Great Salt Lake shorebirds. She talks about everything from the Intermountain West Shorebird Survey to lake levels to snowpack to brine shrimp.