Wildlife and plants guides

Habitats, seasons and watching well: the connective tissue between Utah's animal and plant profiles.

Habitats

Where animals and plants live, and which profiles belong together.

Habitats

A mountain landscape contains more than one kind of habitat.

Habitats

The foothills are especially important to understand in winter.

Habitats

Open country is not vacant ground waiting for trees.

Habitats

Arches describes three broad ways plants survive dryness: using brief favorable conditions, resisting drought, or avoiding its effects.

Habitats

Water creates distinct communities inside otherwise dry landscapes.

Habitats

Keep the saline lake and the freshwater wetland margins distinct in the guide.

Habitats

USU Extension frames wildlife habitat around food, water, cover and places to raise young.

General seasonal patterns, never a conditions report.

Seasons

At Bear River refuge, the published seasonal account places shorebird passage broadly in April and the first half of May.

Seasons

Cedar Breaks' high meadows offer a mountain example of summer flowering; NPS places the peak broadly in midsummer.

Seasons

Autumn color reflects plant physiology.

Seasons

Winter is a good season to understand why distance matters.

Leaving room for wildlife, and reading conservation status with its date.

Watching and reading

Use binoculars or a long lens instead of moving closer.

Watching and reading

A federal listing, a state conservation-priority list and a native-or-introduced label answer different questions, and the profiles keep them apart.