It can be easy to assume that the vast stretches of desert in southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado are mostly barren landscapes — but in truth, the sagebrush-strewn Colorado Plateau is awash with treasure.
It can be easy to assume that the vast stretches of desert in southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado are mostly barren landscapes — but in truth, the sagebrush-strewn Colorado Plateau is awash with treasure.
Above the ground, rare plants like milkvetch, beardtongue penstemon and sclerocactus manage survival under the harshest of ecological conditions, each something of an ecologically niched miracle. Far beneath the surface of the earth, meanwhile, the region offers abundant oil, gas and alternative energy potential scattered among a patchwork of land ownership.
In newly published research, Joshua Carrell, Edd Hammill and Thomas Edwards from the Quinney College of Natural Resources are mapping out strategies so that an emerging demand for proposed energy development projects and the survival of Colorado Plateau’s rare plant populations don’t have to be mutually exclusive endeavors.
Read More: Utah State University
Oil drilling is not light on a landscape. Unpaved roads and drilling pads can damage plant communities by habitat loss, creating barriers for seed dispersal, introducing exotic species, increasing dust and disturbing pollinators. (Photo Credit: Bruce Gordon)
