Plant Salvage Partnership

Volunteers giving native plants a second chance at life.

Courtesy of the Department of Energy

On a cloudy Tuesday, a group of employees at a nearby Federal cleanup project suited up in neon vests to assist Canyonlands’ Vegetation Management team in a mutually beneficial partnership.

UMTRA (Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action) is a project managed by the Department of Energy to safely handle, relocate, and contain 16 million tons of tailings leftover from a former uranium mill on the Colorado River. The site is 3 miles northwest of Moab and less than 30 miles upstream of Canyonlands. With the Vegetation team, the crew of UMTRA employee volunteers salvaged native plants such as needle-and-thread grass, Indian ricegrass, and four-wing saltbush. The plants had been living in the Island in the Sky district of the park, on a plot that will soon be transformed into staff housing. Instead of getting plowed over, these healthy native plants get to start new lives within their ecosystem!

Park staff took some of the salvaged plants to be replanted along a new bike path at Arches National Park Visitor Center with help from another volunteer crew: an Alternative Spring Break group from University of Auburn. The UMTRA volunteers took the others back to their jobsite to start establishing native vegetation on the disturbed land. Having mature native species to plant is an important step to ward off invasive species, as mature plants are able to produce seed to further colonize disturbed areas.

Luke Mattson, an environmental technician with UMTRA, helped organize this event for his coworkers after volunteering at another NPS salvage event at Canyonlands last November. Luke sees great value in the work and that “by partnering with local ecological restoration professionals in the community we are working together to share knowledge and resources to create a sustainable and resilient landscape.”

Liz Ballenger with the park's Vegetation Management team called this "a win-win partnership" and pointed out additional ecological benefits. "[B]unchgrasses such as Indian ricegrass that we salvaged have large, nutritious seeds that are a critical food source for many wildlife species. These large-seeded grasses may also be getting hit hardest by climate change, as they're from a group of plants that responds to winter precipitation and grows in the early part of the season-- so giving these grasses a helping hand is particularly important."

The National Park Service mission is to preserve natural and cultural resources and values for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. As Canyonlands National Park continues to receive higher visitation we work to ensure that our facilities support visitors and staff alike while preserving park resources. Volunteers, like these, are integral partners in accomplishing our mission. We are thankful for all of our community members that support park preservation efforts. Thank you, UMTRA!