Field Tech Takeaways: Lessons From a Summer of Land Management

Field Tech Takeaways: Lessons From a Summer of Land Management 

Becca Black^1*, Lauryn Dupaix^2*, Melissa Stamp³, Paula Trater⁴

¹AmeriCorps, Provo, UT, USA
²AmeriCorps, Provo, UT, USA
³Utah Reclamation Mitigation & Conservation Commission, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
⁴Utah Reclamation Mitigation & Conservation Commission, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Rethinking the way we facilitate watershed resilience is crucial in the face of urban development, rising global temperatures, and critical water resource loss. Rather than rely entirely on developing technologies to resolve these issues, we must evaluate and refine existing techniques. Drawing from our experiences as field technicians with the Utah Conservation Corps, we emphasize the significance of community stewardship, natural regeneration, and clear management priorities for effective watershed conservation. During our four-month term on the Middle Provo River and Provo River Delta, we experienced how local volunteer work forges a relationship with the land that can evolve into an enduring legacy of educated and passionate community stewardship. We saw how encouraging natural
regeneration leads to more diverse and resilient biotic communities. We learned to prioritize long-term solutions and fully consider their impact on all the organisms that rely on the land. Just as it would be shortsighted to discredit new scientific breakthroughs, it would be impractical to ignore the old methods proven through time and experience. The most effective watershed conservation approaches will be a joint effort, the old and the new working together to conserve our precious and finite aquatic resources.