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Show Page 8 The Ogden Valley News Volume XXX Issue IX December 15, 2023 When to Report a Wildlife Sighting Air Quality – 2023 Summer Report By Richard Menzies and Ken Beck or Encounter to the DWR We are back after Utah’s growing population and related urban expansion have increased the number of wildlife encounters across the state in recent years. However, not every encounter or animal sighting needs to be reported to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR). Wildlife encounters during the summer often occur when people are hiking or camping in the mountains or canyons, which are natural wildlife habitat areas. However, these encounters are also common in cities and other urban areas during the winter months. As snow falls in the mountains, deer, moose, and other big game species move to lower elevations looking for food. Cougars, which prey mostly on deer, often follow the deer into the valleys. While it may seem like cougars and other wildlife are migrating into neighborhoods more frequently, it is actually a combination of a few things: • Increased building in the foothill areas and canyons (where wildlife are naturally located). • An increase in the number of doorbell and security cameras on people’s homes (which capture more wildlife sightings that previously went undetected). If you do happen to see wildlife in your neighborhood or yard, you should always keep your distance for your own safety and for the safety of the animal. “Getting too close to a wild animal can cause the animal to feel threatened,” DWR Capt. Chad Bettridge said. “If it feels threatened, it will sometimes act aggressively to protect itself. Plus, because it’s harder for some wildlife to find food in the winter, they need to conserve their energy in order to survive. While a one-off encounter may not be fatal, repeatedly disturbing or chasing species such as moose and deer cause them to use up some of the essential fat reserves and energy that they need to survive the winter.” Another important way to avoid conflicts and to prevent harming wildlife is to make sure never to feed them. While it is not illegal to feed wildlife—except in cities that have ordinances against it—there are several reasons that it is highly discouraged, including: • Public safety concerns (including drawing those animals to residential neighborhoods and roadways). • The spread of chronic wasting disease among deer, elk, and moose. • Potential harm to the wildlife from introducing foods not in their diets, particularly during winter months. “Whenever someone feeds wildlife, those animals will often return to that area in search of food,” Bettridge said. “These areas are often near highways and towns. Concentrating deer and other wildlife near inhabited areas can sometimes result in increased traffic accidents and other human/wildlife conflicts. Attracting deer to your property through feeding can also attract predators, like cougars that follow deer herds. And while deer and moose are not predators, they are still wild animals and can be aggressive, particularly around dogs.” Any time you are injured by wildlife, you should receive immediate medical attention if needed, and report the incident to the DWR. Here is a simple breakdown of some other scenarios that should be reported to the DWR: Cougars - Cougars can be found throughout Utah, usually in the foothill and canyon areas, but also sometimes down in the valleys—especially during the winter months when they follow food-seeking deer to lower elevations. You should report a cougar sighting if: • It has killed something in a neighborhood or yard. • It exhibits aggressive behavior. • It appears several times on your security cameras. If you capture footage of a cougar on security cameras one time or see one from a distance in foothill areas, you do not need to report it. One-time sightings of cougars are typically when the animal is moving through an area, and it has often left by the time DWR biologists and conservation officers can respond. Learn more about preventing conflicts with cougars on the Wild Aware Utah website. Bears - Black bears are the only species of bear currently found in Utah. Similar to cougars, they can also be found in the foothill areas, canyons, and other similar habitats throughout Utah. If bears are in these areas, they should only be reported if they are being aggressive or if they are getting into trash, fruit trees or causing damage. However, you should report a bear that has wandered into lower-elevation areas and is within city limits or in heavily populated areas. Visit the Wild Aware Utah website to learn ways to prevent attracting a bear to your yard. Bears typically go into hibernation from roughly November to March, so you likely won’t see one during the winter. Moose - Moose are also commonly found in the foothill areas since that is their natural habitat. You should report a moose that has wandered into lower-elevation areas and is within city limits or heavily populated areas, so the DWR can relocate the animal. If moose aren’t relocated, they can stay in an area for a long time and potentially injure someone or damage property. Urban environments, which include fences and vehicles, can be unsafe for moose. Avoid approaching moose or attempting to “herd” them out of yards or roads. Moose can be very aggressive, especially around dogs. For more wildlife-related safety tips and information, visit the Wild Aware Utah website. another brief hiatus brought about by further problems in accessing and analyzing the Purple Air data, but more fortuitously because there were no serious bad air events on which to report. Ogden Valley had a few days at the end of May when the air quality was bad due to smoke from fires up in Canada, but then, from June through the end of October, we only had one day when smoke came into Ogden Valley and the air quality strayed witnin the moderate (yellow) range. Overall, the fire season was less destructive this year than in recent years because of the previous wet winter. And smoke from the fires that did occur out in the west and Canada did not get blown our way. Thus, so far, we have been very lucky this year with our air quality but as can be seen from the November data, the region has already been hit by a winter inversion. Ogden Valley was spared but Ogden and SLC saw significant spikes into the moderate range, with Logan only sligthly above good late in the month. You may recall that inversions form mostly when there is snow on the ground, and the cold ground causes the cold air to sit down on the valley floors if there is no wind to mix the air. This means that all pollution that is emitted in the Valley stays in our airshed until the high pressure system moves on and wind arrives to disperse the pollution. The particulates that cause the inversion smog come from transportation, homes, and industry. Since we have no industry in the Valley, we have some control over emissions into our airshed. The two easiest actions for us all to take are not to burn wood (or anything else) and to use Tier 3 gasoline. Wood burning emits black carbon and ash into the atmosphere, which act as nuclei on which particulates form causing the smog. In addition, black carbon has a bad greenhouse effect, causing overall heating of the climate. Tier 3 gas has a low sulfur content (10ppm), which allows the catalytic converter in our cars and trucks to work more effectively, reducing the amount of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emitted from tail pipes. These NOx compounds also lead to the creation of the fine particulates that cause smog. For cars made in 2017 or thereafter, using tier 3 gas results in a reduction in NOx of 83% and even for older cars the reduction is 13%. Tier 3 gas is different from the Top Tier gas (with special detergent additives). Tier 3 gas is only sold at Exon, Sinclair, Chevron, Texaco, Shell, and Speedway but not at Maverick or Costco. For new-build homes or the rehabilitation of older homes, using the best possible insulation and making the home as airtight as possible are low-cost approaches to reducing the emissions of the home over its lifetime (up to about 100 years). Other items that will have a major effect is the use of a ground source heat pump to provide heating and cooling and hot water (plus solar panels to run the heat pumps if desired). Building energy-neutral homes (such as those being built by Habitat for Humanity in Ogden) is no longer an expensive proposition. With the recent announcement of Salt Lake City being the preferred site for the 2034 winter Olympics, expect more attention from our local politicians to promote actions to reduce the severity of winter inversions. As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at menziesrg1@gmail. com or nekkceb.durfee@gmail.com. |