Scientifically speaking

SCIENCE MATTERS

Environmental researchers provide lawmakers with tools to prepare for the future as population growth continues

by Stevie Ipsen for the Utah Cattlemen’s Association

According to Gov. Spencer Cox, who himself comes from a farming family in rural Central Utah, land, water and air issues should not be partisan issues.

At a time when it is a simple for all citizens – those from agriculture and those not from agriculture – to recall from recent memory places in the west that have been virtually annihilated by wildfire or drought, Cox says everyone is affected when it comes to the wellbeing of our environment.

The governor addressed the governor a meeting of Utah State University researchers at Salt Lake City’s Gallivan Center in December 2021.”These are not Republican issues or Democrat issues, these are human issues and they are certainly western issues,” Cox told the group.

After hotter and harsher fires have burned through the west, including the Beehive State in recent fire seasons, politicians are taking notice – and finally taking action. The governor said Republicans and Democrats alike are putting their heads together to craft policy to address these issues and that it’s important for leaders to utilize science and documented evidence in guiding future policy.

For farmers and ranchers in Utah and across the western states and public lands, the evidence has long been mounting and common sense has shown that mismanagement (and under usage) of grazing land has been key to fires burning longer and hotter with each passing year.

Cox’s comments were made at an event celebrating the unveiling of the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute of Land, Water and Air at Utah State University. Wayne Niederhauser, chairman of the USU Board of Trustees and former Utah Senator, said the goals of the institute are to bring together faculty who study issues related to land and water use, as well as air quality.

Though still in its infancy, the institute is already at work helping provide the evidence that can be used toward future policy making decisions. The Foundation, run by Janet Quinney Lawson’s family, allocated a $7 million donation toward the naming of the institute in the fall of 2021. Niederhauser said that donation also provided an endowment for the institute to function.

Roughly 82 percent of USU faculty researchers represent the environmental areas of land, water and air, according to the university. Three dozen researchers have participated in Utah researcher partnerships.

During the December event, USU President Noelle Cockett, a doctor of veterinary medicine and former dean of the College of Agriculture explained that the research areas of land water and air aren’t just interconnected but those areas cover a wide range of individual topics. She read off a list of other areas of study that almost 140 USU faculty researchers focus on that include land, water and air. Those sub-topics include wildlife resource researchers, rain specialists, turfgrass scientists, biogeochemists and water and environmental engineers. That doesn’t include the many USU Extension experts that cover fields within the three main topics, and it doesn’t include the many students aiding the research effort, as well, she explained

The new institute got to work right away, publishing in late 2021 the “2021 Report to the Governor on Utah’s Land, Water and Air,” a 52-page document compiled by 45 authors. The document is the first annual report to the Utah Governor’s Office that addresses the environmental issues that Utah leaders now face and will continue to face in the coming years. The report will be provided to the governor’s office every year, giving the state’s top official an overall view of various issues tied to land, water and air.

Cockett said this kind of research will have the ability to provide context to current issues, focus in on critical details and highlight the bigger picture by showing how small occurrences influence overal trends. Cockett explained that this first report is broad in order to cover all the evidence that’s currently known about 25 of the “immediate and emerging issues” within the state’s natural resources and diverse landscapes.

This snapshot report was also made easily digestible

for readers, Cocket said. The authors were told to “encapsulate entire disciplines into a single-page summary of 200 words or less,” she said.

Cockett said, “I believe this report, as well as many other USU research projects beyond its scope, will help drive effective and informed decision-making in Utah…But even more, I hope all Utahns — individuals, families, groups, classes, student projects and the media — access this report and consider its messages.”

THE INAUGURAL REPORT

According to the 2021 report, changing climates and population growth appear to be the largest challenges looking toward Utah’s future. Wildlife, severe drought and worsening air quality have become key issues. The 2020 U.S. Census indicates that Utah led the United States with 18.4 percent population growth in the past 10 years. Additionally, the report to the Governor indicates that the state’s population has increased by over 40 percent in the past 20 years.

There are more people living in the same amount of space and experts say there is no indication that growth will slow anytime soon, which makes the issues in the report even more important to address.

The report says current growth trends are “projected to continue, accelerate and will have profound impacts on the state…Although growth brings many benefits to the state, negative impacts of development include decreasing air quality, decreasing water quality and loss of animal habitat. Further research into specific trends, drivers of these patterns and potential strategies to align development with citizen goals is needed to better address future challenges.”

Dry spells come as no surprise for agriculturists in Utah. It is a desert afterall. Drought has probably been the most common environmental theme of at least the past two decades while the population growth trend has existed.

The report also points out that trends show a lower snowpack year over year. That in turn impedes Utah’s water supply and perpetuates the drought situations because the majority of the state’s water comes from snowpack runoff in the spring rather than just from rainfall like in some states in the country.

Cockett explais that these environmental changes can affect water availability, inversions and air quality as well as the state’s crops and livestock. She also added that air quality exacerbating drought as an example of how all the topics are interconnected.

Organizers of the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute also played a video during the Institute’s inaugural event that featured a group of local and state representatives from various parts of Utah and from different political parties who agreed that decisions tied to land, water and air are vital for Utahns.

When speaking at the event Niederhauser said he really didn’t actually realize the true importance of Utah’s population projections on the state’s environment and infrastructure until almost 10 years ago. He cited future predictions of more than 6 million residents in

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the Utah over the next few decades as one key reason that the new institute and its annual report will matter. “Maybe the demographers will be wrong but they have been right in the past,” he said. “This institute and this report is going to be critical for us.”

WORKING FOR TOMORROW TODAY

Randy Martin is a professor who specializes in air quality at USU. He says immerging and evolving technologies to cleaner fuels or zero-emission sources is one of the things Utahns can do today to help with air quality. Martin is one of four authors of the inaugural report who attended the inaugural institute event for a panel discussion regarding the report. The panel discussion ended with insight on what Utahns can do today to help address land, water and air issues.

Martin said humans are finally becoming aware that they’re becoming a part of the problem in the changes that are being experience in the environment.

“As far as air quality, we all contribute. We all drive our cars, we all have our houses. In Utah, mobile sources – our cars, are roughly 50 percent of the total emissions so minimizing what you do individually is going to contribute to the solution of that problem,” Martin said.

While retrofitting livestock trailers or the trucks needed to pull them isn’t really an option for livestock owners today, it may be something that will have to be considered down the road, figuratively speaking.

Martin said that Utahns don’t need to buy electric or hybrid vehicles right away but that they should maybe consider looking at those types of options next time they are in the market for a new car. Keeping vehicles operating at optimal conditions is also helpful for air quality. Changing oil regularly and fixing issues related to the performance of a vehicle’s engine can also help and Martin said there is also the more obvious options of carpooling or utilizing public transportation to lower the number of motor vehicles on Utah’s roads.

Something that livestock producers have long been an example of was also brought up in the meeting – land management. While not everyone agrees on what proper management means, it is becoming more and more clear than under utilizing wildland resources plays a large role in the catastrophic wildfires that have plagued the west in recent decades.

Researchers from USU, said government entities can manage public lands better to reduce wildfire risk, especially in areas most vulnerable to fires. This point is where it becomes vital for folks who best know the environment – like members of the Utah Cattlemen’s Association – to stay diligent in helping policy makers see the importance of grazing private and public lands to reduce fire fuel loads both now and in the immediate future.

As the population of Utah grows and mother nature continues to have years like 2021 where water is scarce, the need for conservation of this precious resource will not just be a concern for livestock owners but for the general public as well. The topic of drought is one ranchers are very familiar with but is just now catching attention from regular citizens. Even though water rationing is something farmers and ranchers understand, the real challenge remains that the public is largely unaware of how to cut their water usage.

Water was a topic brought up Kelly Kopp, the director of USU’s Center for Water Efficient Landscaping. Kopp pointed out that every resident is eligible for a smart irrigation controller that can save up to 50 percent of the water applied at urban landscapes, though she did not offer an input on how to deliver that message to Utah’s urban population.

Though we are still in the midst of snowpack season and thus far Utah has received more moisture than in recent years, it is important to recognize that as of press time, most of the state still has great need for more water to fill reservoirs for the coming year.

The annual report to the governor regarding the environmental conditions in Utah is a step in the right direction in regards to planning for the future. While science is a valuable tool that should not be overlooked, the report serves as a reminder that agriculturists – Utah’s farmers and ranchers – are the original environmentalists. They work day-in and day-out doing what is best for the resources under their care. It is still important for your voices to be shared and heard to help policy makers of all parties recognize the good that you do, not just for your operations but for Utah as a whole.

USDA SECRETARY VILSACK ANNOUNCES NEW 10-YEAR STRATEGY TO CONFRONT THE WILDFIRE CRISIS

On January 18, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Forest Service Chief Randy Moore launched a comprehensive response to the nation’s growing wildfire crisis – “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests.” The strategy outlines the need to significantly increase fuels and forest health treatments to address the escalating crisis of wildfire danger that threatens millions of acres and numerous communities across the United States.

The Forest Service will work with other federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior, and with Tribes, states, local communities, private landowners and other partners to focus fuels and forest health treatments more strategically and at the scale of the problem, based on the best available science.

The strategy highlights new research on what Forest Service scientists identified as high risk “firesheds” – large, forested landscapes with a high likelihood that an ignition could expose homes, communities, infrastructure and natural resources to wildfire. Firesheds, typically about 250,000 acres in size, are mapped to match the scale of community exposure to wildfire.

The Forest Service will use this risk-based information to engage with partners and create shared priorities for landscape scale work, to equitably and meaningfully change the trajectory of risk for people, communities and natural resources, including areas important for water, carbon and wildlife.

The groundwork in this new strategy will begin in areas identified as being at the highest risk, based on community exposure. Additional high risk areas for water and other values are being identified. Some of the highest risk areas based on community exposure include the Pacific Northwest, the Sierra Nevada Range in California, the front range in Colorado, and the Southwest.

The strategy calls for the Forest Service to treat up to an additional 20 million acres on national forests and grasslands and support treatment of up to an additional 30 million acres of other federal, state, Tribal, private and family lands. Fuels and forest health treatments, including the use of prescribed fire and thinning to reduce hazardous fuels, will be complemented by investments in fire-adapted communities and work to address post-fire risks, recovery and reforestation.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides nearly $3 billion to reduce hazardous fuels and restore America’s forests and grasslands, along with investments in fireadapted communities and post fire reforestation. Funds

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will be used to begin implementing this critical work.

In 2020, 2017 and 2015, more than 10 million acres burned nationwide, an area more than six times the size of Delaware. In the past 20 years, many states have had record catastrophic wildfires, harming people, communities and natural resources and causing billions of dollars in damage. In 2020, Coloradans saw all three of their largest fires on record. The running five-year average number of structures destroyed by wildfires each year rose from 2,873 in 2014 to 12,255 in 2020 – a fourfold increase in just six years.

“The negative impacts of today’s largest wildfires far outpace the scale of efforts to protect homes, communities and natural resources,” said Vilsack. “Our experts expect the trend will only worsen with the effects of a changing climate, so working together toward common goals across boundaries and jurisdictions is essential to the future of these landscapes and the people who live there.”

“We already have the tools, the knowledge and the partnerships in place to begin this work in many of our national forests and grasslands, and now we have funding that will allow us to build on the research and the lessons learned to address this wildfire crisis facing many of our communities,” said Moore. “We want to thank Congress, the President and the American people for entrusting us to do this important work.”

The Forest Service remains committed to sustaining the health, diversity and productivity of all of America’s forests. Visit the Forest Service website to read the full strategy document. If you would like to partner with the Forest Service, visit the National Partnership Office website at www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/ partnerships.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart © Daily Herald food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.