Plants
Monument landscape. NPS photo In 1984, Dr. Robert Dorn and his coworkers mapped and categorized the monument's vegetation into fourteen types: Aquatic (rooted in water), Aspen, Barren, Alkali Sagebrush (low sage); Basin Big Sagebrush, Mountain Shrub, Saline, Wet Meadow, and Willow. Their distribution is controlled primarily by the depth, clay, and moisture content of the soil, but some types, like the Barren type, which occurs on ridgetops, are controlled by the force of the wind. |
Did You Know?
Railroad workers played a major role in the discovery of fossils from the Green River Formation. In the late 1860's, Union Pacific workers uncovered the first major fossil fish beds (Lake Gosiute) near the town of Green River, Wyoming.