Helping Mother Nature

Few people get as excited about moss as field biologist Quentin Lawrence. A sporophyte spotting sends her into a whirlwind of excitement as she wades through creeks in Alta's Albion Basin searching for elusive moss clusters.

"The mosses will show us the regime of the water up here," Lawrence says as she carefully pockets a sample of mushy green moss and marks the location of her find on a Global Positioning System unit.

Lawrence is so thrilled by moss because she is part of an ecological study in Alta that is using high-tech equipment to get back to the basics of Mother Nature. Researchers comb through the basin with hand-held GPS units, taking copious notes of the location and description of the array of wildlife and plants that inhabit the area.

That data are then converted into ecological maps that can pinpoint key natural resources in the watershed area, which provides 22 percent of Salt Lake Valley's drinking water. The data will also be entered into an ecological database cataloging the varieties of flora and fauna in the basin.

"This is a sacred park for people. We need to maintain that," said Alta Mayor William Levitt. "GPS will really give us the ability to enhance the quality of life up here."

Laura McIndoe, assistant town administrator for Alta, said the ultimate goal of the project is to be able to locate and track natural resources and water sources to determine change over time and whether those resources are in danger of dying out. To do that, Alta volunteers and field biologists such as Lawrence will continue to map data for years.

This year, the GPS team led by Lawrence has decided to focus on mosses because their appearance indicates the presence of water, even if the water cannot be seen on the ground surface. Identifying where the water resources are in Alta will allow the city to better protect the water from being unwittingly diverted to housing developments, said Ty Harrison, a biology professor at Westminster College who is helping direct the study.

Harrison added that while the mapping project in Alta is the first of its kind in Utah, it needs to be replicated across the Wasatch Front because the studies can tell city planners and ecologists exactly where the resources are that need protection.

"Wetlands are the most valuable habitats, and cities aren't protecting them," Harrison said. "The feeling in Utah is that when it comes to water, people are more important than wildlife. Sometimes water and wildlife are more important than people, and I think that's clearly the case in Albion Basin."