AAG-GPRM Field Trips

Field Trip 1:  Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge
Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is 40 miles west of Logan where the Bear River flows into the northeast arm of the Great Salt Lake.  The Refuge protects the extensive freshwater marshes of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem.  These marshes are the largest in the state and provide critical habitat for migrating birds from both the Pacific and Central Flyway of North America.  Because marshes and wetlands are scarce in the semi-arid Intermountain West, this marsh becomes a critical oasis for migratory waterfowl.  For this reason, the Migratory Bird Refuge is designated as a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site.  Fall birds include Northern harriers, American avocet, black-necked stilt, snowy plover, long-billed curlew, Franklin’s gull, and white-faced ibis.  Bring your binoculars.

Field Trip 2:  Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area
Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area is a 19,000-acre working ranch located in the mountains 22 miles southeast of Logan, Utah.  The ranch has served as a center for elk research since the 1950s.  Its mission is to enhance big game winter range and other critical habitats.  A key activity at the ranch is the feeding of the local elk population during winter.  The encroachment of agriculture and urban development on traditional elk and deer winter range has increased conflicts with humans.  The feeding program mitigates this conflict.  The purpose of this field trip is to understand issues related to human-wildlife interactions and the consequences of habitat encroachment by human development.

Field Trip 3:  The Cultural Landscape of Cache Valley, Utah.
Named "Cache Valley" for the caches of beaver pelts and other provisions left by French and Anglo trappers in the early 1800s, Cache Valley was home to Shoshone Indians prior to the arrival of Mormon settlers in 1856.  Within a decade of their arrival, and through the 1870s, about a dozen Mormon settlements were established throughout the valley.  The imprint of these early "Mormon Villages" is still apparent in Cache Valley today.  This field trip will introduce participants to a historically agricultural landscape with a rich cultural heritage based on the traditional Mormon settlement pattern.  Some of the Mormon landscape elements we will see include: cardinally-oriented grid pattern for streets, large city blocks, irrigation canals & ditches, hay derricks, inside-outside granaries, Lombardy poplars, and typical ward houses and tabernacles.  While the primary focus of the trip will be on early Mormon settlement patterns, trip organizers plan to introduce and discuss modern-day cultural impacts on the landscape, such as the effects and patterns of urbanization.