A long echoing hello again from canyon country. The past week took us to the Virgin River area near Zion Canyon. We sampled abandoned oil well sites dating back to the late 1920’s with some as recent as the early 80’s. The oil drilling scene there was very different from those near Bluff or Moab, UT. In those two areas drill sites are flat, expansive, and far apart. However, the sites near Zion are clustered together wherever there was a flat space to be found, no matter how tiny. The wells are everywhere! Sometimes right next to each other.

A fun vegetation survey to me means lots of plants to ID! Which is exactly what we got! Our team was unfamiliar with many of the species found, so we have been spending lots of times pouring over Utah Flora and Intermountain Flora and debating over glumes, phyllaries and various bracts, and of course the many wonderful types of plant hairs (Ilovestellateplanthairs). We have been IDing so much that I dreamed about IDing Sphaeralcea. “It’s all about the leaves,” my dream-self recommended.

Here’s to dreaming of plants and spectacular Utah!

Cheers,
Amanda

USGS Henderson, NV

Typical well cap

Vegetation Transect

Oil Well turned Campsite