For those who frequent Run-A-Muk Dog Park and Right Turn Sage trail, commonly known as RTS, you may have participated in an aspen survey conducted last fall by Utah State University graduate student Georgie Corkery, who is now a proud Master of Science in ecology.
Thanks to funding from Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District, Corkery studied the aspen stand growing along the streams in those two recreation spaces below the iconic Olympic Park.
“We noticed a pretty drastic and sudden decline in the health of the quaking aspen in that area,” said Basin Recreation Trails and Open Space Manager Phares Gines. “It really seemed to be dying off and dying off quickly. So we kind of wondered why. Was it environmental? Was it wildlife? Was it dogs? Was it all of the above or none of the above?”
In research that would serve as her Master’s thesis titled “Socially Valued, Ecologically in Decline,” Corkery was tasked with investigating the causes for this health decline — and then with offering suggestions to manage and conserve the area.
Her study was twofold: an ecology component involved field research and lab testing on 45 randomly selected plots in the forest, while a social component engaged recreationists through a survey.
“They wanted to know what’s going on on this landscape,” said Corkery. “What’s going on ecologically, and, of course, because this is a recreation, part of that landscape is people.”
What she found through her months of research is that the factors that are primarily impacting this quaking aspen forest are recreation, ungulates — which are hoofed mammals like deer, elk and moose — and soil contamination.
The soil testing revealed high sodium levels, especially in plots closest to the stream running through the area, leading to a hypothesis that this is possibly caused by road salt on Olympic Parkway or construction projects upstream. These high sodium levels can prevent roots from soaking up water, Corkery said.
The impact of ungulates was due to overbrowsing, she said, a problem that especially impacts aspen due to their clonal reproduction process, where each tree is connected through an underground root system.
“A stem, just like my finger on my hands, is connected to other stems underground; all my fingers are connected to each other by the palm of my hand,” Corkery said.
To reproduce, aspen grow saplings up from the roots, a process known as regeneration where damaged or dying mature trees trigger growth hormones. The young sprouts are especially tasty for ungulates, and while the trees have a natural defense mechanism to evade browsing, it can’t keep up against abnormally large numbers of browsing deer, elk and moose.
Paul C. Rogers, Corkery’s professor at Utah State University and the director of Western Aspen Alliance, said this causes a concerning domino effect.
“If you have years and decades go by where everyone is eaten, you start getting a really skewed demographic,” he said.
Aspen is a keystone species, said Rogers, referencing an architecture term for a stone placed in an archway that, when removed, can cause the whole structure to collapse. In the ecological world, this same result can happen if aspen are impacted.
“Whatever happens to them, good or bad, the same trajectory follows for everything that’s dependent on them. So think of all the wildflowers and forbs and shrubs and things that live underneath aspen trees and then all of the animals that they attract on a daily basis. As goes aspen, plus or minus, so go those other species,” he said.
Native to the Intermountain West, the quaking aspen has developed a unique symbology, capturing the hearts of visitors and residents alike, said Rogers. In 2014, the quaking aspen became the Utah state tree.
“People seem to be naturally attracted to that, whether it’s the flipping leaves or just the brightness of the understory and all the plants growing there,” said Rogers.
Drawing from Native American ideology, Rogers refers to these trees as an elixir, a physical place that can bring about good feelings.
“You’ll find people selecting these areas for hunting and camping, and just traditionally, both in North America and in Europe, as places to go and meditate. There’s a kind of a calming spirit in that,” he said.
The root connectivity of aspen as part of its ecological makeup is another reason people are drawn to these trees, Rogers said. There’s a metaphysical symbology there as well, how the individual trees are actually all one tree and how an individual person is part of a communal whole.
“There’s a lot of connections that are invisible, both ecologically and sociologically, between each other, between different people, but also between people in landscapes,” Rogers said. “They may be just we think about them, we may be trying to preserve them, we may appreciate them for art.”
In Corkery’s study, people’s appreciation for these trees was investigated as aspen identity.
“When people found out that the focus of my research was quaking aspen, people had stories to share,” Corkery said.
She noticed that the greater connection a person felt toward aspen, the more they would be supportive of conservation needs.
“Our response rate is what percentage of people say ‘yes’ when they’re asked to take a survey randomly when they’re recreating, and it was really high. And that’s noteworthy. These people care about the place and they appreciate Basin Rec,” said Corkery.
But enjoying and caring about the natural elements in areas like the Wasatch Back is only one step toward protecting them. And who are we protecting them from? Ourselves.
“There’s a lot of threats to these systems,” said Rogers. “And so things that we find value in our society for a whole host of reasons — grazing, hunting, biodiversity, aesthetics, photography — … these systems are threatened by things that we as human beings are doing now to the ecosystems.”
While Corkery’s study noted concerns for the aspen stand on Basin Recreation land, it also identified ways the harmful deterioration of this forest could be reversed.
Some of her recommendations included putting up fencing to prevent overgrazing, limiting recreation in areas to allow for tree regeneration and increasing soil health by possibly filtering the stream after it passed through the construction zones and before it would reach the aspen stand.
With Corkery’s recommendations, Basin Recreation intends to establish both short-term and long-term plans, said Gines.
“It’s hard because we have that recreational component that we have to provide with our open space. So, to close a trail down or a big area down for multiple years would be very difficult in our area because it’s so widely used and popular and accessed,” he said.
Implementing fencing in some smaller areas on a trial basis is something they’re considering, Gines said, as well as stream restoration to hopefully improve the water intake for the trees. They’ll also continue to test the soil and monitor the trees.
“Hopefully we find something that works and we can do something to not only restore some of the aspen in that area, but also to the aspen surrounding there,” he said.
After seeing the interest of her survey participants to hear the research results, Corkery decided to bring her findings back to them during two guided hikes on Thursday, May 16, and Saturday, May 18.
“I want to present it back to them and be like, ‘Look, this is what you all collectively said. This is what you are a part of,'” she said.
Thursday’s hike will begin at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday’s at 10 a.m., she said, and will cover the key takeaways from her research as well as fun aspen ecology facts.
These two hikes are just one of the educational components that Corkery hopes will contribute to further developing a sense of responsibility for these trees.
“We know in the literature that the more people care about a place, the more likely they are to be stewards of a place,” Corkery said. “So putting up signage, having those educational events, really getting people to understand the system — I think one would increase their aspen identity and potentially increase the amount of stewardship that they’re willing to display.”
Learn more about Corkery’s upcoming naturalist hikes on Basin Recreation’s website at basinrecreation.org/event/quaking-aspen-socially-valued-ecologically-in-decline.
