EPIC National Park Service Member Highlight
A Reflection by Sam Newman, Vegetation & Resource Protection Member – Southeast Utah Group
Our primary focus has been patrolling and repairing the boundary fences in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. My team members Marina Ramos-Pezzotti and Dakota Holder created an updated map with ArcGIS that inventories the current state of the boundary fence that can be readily accessed by land managers in our agency, as well as future interns. This includes current signage, cached fence materials, and maintenance issues in the parks. Additionally, we have been fixing or building fences where we feel we have the skills and resources to make the biggest impacts.
In Arches, we focused most of our efforts reinforcing the western boundary fence where the new Utah Raptor State Park is being opened in the Spring. We expect to see increased usage from hikers, bikers, and OHV traffic, so we wanted to close any access points where trespass might occur. We also installed more boundary signage and made fence repairs. We also inventoried a historic boundary fence located inside the park and wrote a report to assist in writing a proposal to remove the wire strands of this fence to ensure safer wildlife passage through this area.In Canyonlands, we retrofitted a fence in the Needles District with a wildlife friendly fence since we observed a number of wildlife signs in the area. Notably, we found several tufts of ungulate fur caught in barbs along the fence indicating the threat of potential wildlife entrapment.
This project involved working with the park’s wildlife biologist and a regional NPS grazing and range specialist to determine a wildlife friendly fence specification. Then, we went down to the Needles, removed the old wire, and strung up a new fence with the assistance of backcountry rangers.Our general duties include responding to cattle sightings within the parks, searching for cattle signs, and then fixing fences to prevent future trespass. We are also responsible for the weekly collection of weather and atmospheric data from the Canyonlands Air Quality Monitoring station. We support the park’s trails team, Visitor and Resource Protection program, and Resource Stewardship and Science program. Some of these duties have included: assisting with search and rescue, performing trail maintenance, installing and maintaining bootbrush stations, and collecting plant and soil samples.