Join the Moab Information Center on Thursdays throughout the summer months for the Moab lecture series, where local scientists and park rangers discuss their work. Lectures are hosted at the Moab Information Center (3015 S. Hwy 191) at 6 p.m.!
October 7 ~ Special Tuesday Lecture with the Moab Museum ~ Robert Anderson ~ Uranium Mines to Red Rock Tourism ~ From Uranium Mines to Red Rock Tourism: Join Ranger Robby as he discusses how Moab's economic focus evolved from uranium mining to outdoor recreation and tourism. Hosted in collaboration with the Moab Museum, National Park Service, and Canyonlands Natural History Association, this free program will take place at the Moab Information Center on October 7 at 6pm.
October 10 ~ Steve Leavitt ~ The Living Skin of the Desert: Meet the Ghost Lichens ~ The slickrock domes and fins near Moab are famous worldwide for biking, jeeping, and hiking - but hidden in plain sight is another treasure: an extraordinary diversity of lichens. These “living skins” paint the sandstone in colorful patches and ghostly patterns, shaping desert ecosystems in ways we’re only beginning to understand. Despite their abundance, the lichens on sandstone surfaces are understudied. Many may be species new to science, others vulnerable to change and disturbance, and all can tell a fascinating story of life in the desert. This talk will introduce the overlooked world of desert lichens, explore how recreation and changing conditions may impact them, and highlight how DNA tools are helping uncover their hidden diversity. Join us to see how lichens bring the desert to life, and why knowing (and protecting) them matters. Steve Leavitt is a CNHA Discovery Pool recipient.
October 23 ~ Michael Thorne ~ Mapping the Last Ice of Utah ~ Join CNHA Discovery Pool recipient, Michael Thorne as he presents the efforts, using a variety of geophysical techniques to map the last remaining glaciers in the state of Utah. Rock glaciers are mixtures of ice and rock found in high-mountain environments worldwide, with over 50,000 rock glaciers currently known to exist. They typically contain a layer of debris overlaying the ice, which acts to insulate the ice and causes them to melt more slowly than bare ice glaciers whose ice is exposed at the surface. To estimate their contribution to local water systems, the volume of ice must be measured, which is difficult to do using standard imaging techniques because of the often-thick volume of rock and debris sitting on the surface. In this presentation, I will focus on our efforts in mapping the ice content of high mountain rock glaciers in Utah’s Wasatch and La Sal ranges.