Plants in a Wash | Photo Credit: Karen L Monsen
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A Walk in a
Wash
by Karen L. Monsen
A
s temperatures cool and students return to school, a walk through a wash can sharpen observation skills and lead to a greater understanding of and appreciation for our place in nature. The Outdoor Leadership Academy (OLA), supported by the National Park Service, Dixie State University, and community organizations, was formed to introduce youth to nature’s outdoor classroom. Outside learning experiences can begin anywhere, and a walk in a wash is a good place to start. What’s a Wash? A wash, wadi, gulch, gully, arroyo, and draw are names associated with dry water channels. Dixie State University Biology Professor Dr. Erin O’Brien defines a wash as erosion from ephemeral (seasonal or intermittent) creeks and small streams that dry up for periods and that may experience flash floods during heavy rains.
Washes in Utah’s sandstone canyons provide shade on hot days and life-supporting water in dry times. When water moving down through porous sandstone layers reaches a harder layer, it moves horizontally outward, drips, and forms shallow pools at the wall’s base. Early humans collected water from these seeps, and animals and plants survived on them. Cottonwood, velvet ash, willow, hackberry, skunk bush, and arrow weed are common in Utah washes. Tadpoles, brine shrimp, and dragonfly larvae will occupy small pools, and tracks from insects, lizards, birds, small mammals, and even raccoons can be found in soft soil and sand. Wayfinding in a wash is easy, and hikers minimize their environmental impact by staying in wash areas—which are already disturbed—and avoiding stepping on cryptobiotic soil crusts. Boulders, rocks, deep sand, and quicksand create hazards and expose the severity of prior high-water flows, thereby reminding hikers to closely monitor the weather.
Sept/Oct 2021 ||VIEW VIEWON ONMAGAZINE MAGAZINE||
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