2014-2015 Annual Report Director Site Manager Administrative Support Michael T. Stevens, Ph.D. Jason Kudulis (July-February) Annette Harrington Associate Professor of Biology Site Manager Custodial & Associate Director Gina Gilson (May-Present) Maintenance Support Keith White Lesa Dean Associate Professor of Assistant Site Manager Developmental Mathematics Darrell Mensel CRFS Staff CRFS Advisory Board Maria Blevins, Ph.D. Travis Lovell Linda Shelton Assistant Professor Assistant Professor of Instructor of of Communication Art & Visual Communication English & Literature Danny Horns, Ph.D. T. Heath Ogden, Ph.D. Paul Weber, Ph.D. Associate Dean, Assistant Professor Assistant Professor of Physics College of Science & Health of Biology Advisory Board Members are Betsy Lindley, Ph.D. Mary Sowder, Ph.D. Utah Valley University (UVU) faculty Associate Professor of Exercise Associate Professor and staff who serve for ~3 years on Science & Outdoor Recreation of Education a rotating schedule. 2 crfs 2014-2015 annual report Four hundred fifty undergraduates visited Capitol Reef Field Station (CRFS) this year in our busiest year ever. To put this number into context, this rate of visitation places us in the top 15% of field stations nationwide.1 The majority of students who visit CRFS are from UVU. Because of our dual mission, UVU is in the uncommon position of having the field station resources of a comprehensive university while serving a high proportion of community-college-going students CRFS who are often underrepresented at field stations.1 Further, CRFS is one of less than ten field stations run by a university Staff and located in a national park. It’s exciting to be part of such a unique, vibrant, and growing enterprise. In the context of our location in Capitol Reef National Park on the Colorado Plateau, we focus on engaged learning, research, and environmental ethics. Please read about our activities and accomplishments, and our goals for the future. Michael T. Stevens, Ph.D. Director, Capitol Reef Field Station DIRECTOR’S 1Hodder J (2009) What are undergraduates doing at biological INTRODUCTION field stations and marine laboratories? BioScience 59:666-672. Director's Introduction 3 Our Mission sky, for which Capitol Reef National Park recently received a Gold-Tier Capitol Reef Field Station, in International Dark Sky designation. partnership with Capitol Reef Our incredible location provides an National Park, promotes and unparalleled opportunity for place- supports engaged learning, research, based learning. Only 3.5 hours from scholarly, and creative activities, UVU and the Wasatch Front, CRFS and environmental ethics through the welcomes students and faculty from exploration of the Colorado Plateau. institutions of higher learning who seek to experience the natural and cultural Our Place legacies of the Colorado Plateau. Beyond the paved roads, 2.5 miles Our Vision past the end of the aptly named Scenic Drive, our buildings sit atop a mesa in Every visitor leaves the field station the heart of Capitol Reef National having learned more than the content Park. Amidst unobstructed views of of their coursework. Far away from postcard-perfect scenery, one can hear many of life’s daily distractions, visitors the calming sounds of Pleasant Creek are able to immerse themselves in as they loft over historic pastures. educational experiences that focus on The sun rises over the last mountain the natural world that surrounds them. range in the continental United States Practicing conservation encourages to be mapped, the Henry Mountains, all visitors to think about their role framed by towering sandstone cliffs. in the environment and deepen their To the west lies Boulder Mountain, understanding of environmental ethics. which supported small glaciers during We hope that every visitor connects the last ice age. Looking up, casual to the landscape and develops an stargazers and serious astronomers appreciation for the area’s biological alike appreciate the amazing night diversity and rich cultural history. 4 crfs 2014-2015 annual report Our History handed over to the park in 1995. A few years passed before UVU From CRFS, visitors can see hundreds approached the park with the idea of millions of years into the past. of converting the unoccupied site to The rocky landscapes tell stories of a field station. It was agreed that a shallow seas, tidal flats, swamps, field station would support the mission and sand deserts. More recently, of each organization, and after years Pleasant Creek has carved its way of close collaboration on the project, through the canyon walls to create the idea became a reality. CRFS the oasis that has attracted life for opened its doors in October of 2008. millennia including Paleo-Indian, Desert Archaic, Fremont, and Numic- Our Partnership speaking (Ute and Paiute) people. The success of our mission is made More recently, the Mormon pioneers possible through the partnership began to set the scene that we see between UVU and Capitol Reef today. In 1882, Ephraim Hanks National Park. This unique partnership established his ranch in Pleasant Creek allows CRFS to provide its visitors with Valley, building the first permanent educational experiences that are home in what would become Capitol as remarkable as the landscape in Reef National Park. This same ranch which they occur. CRFS is property changed hands many times over the of the National Park Service and is years, and had been converted into operated under the direction of UVU a tourist destination called Sleeping and the park in accordance with Rainbow Ranch when the national our General Agreement, which we park was created in 1971. The ranch’s renewed in May 2014. owner, Lurt Knee, deeded the ranch to About the national park in a transaction that included life tenancy. The land was crfs About CRFS 5 Visitation to CRFS has steadily previous fiscal year. Our current use increased since opening in 2008, is three times greater than our first visitation and this year was no exception. User complete fiscal year with visitors days, calculated by multiplying the (2009-10). We credit this substantial summary number of visitors by the number increase to our ongoing marketing of calendar days they spent at the efforts as well as our new approach station, totaled 2,108 (Fig. 1). This to reviewing and scheduling represents a 22% increase over the reservation requests. Fig. 1 User days at CRFS have steadily increased since our first complete year in operation (2009-10). Visitation for 2014-15 increased by 22% compared to the previous fiscal year. 6 crfs 2014-2015 annual report Seventy-six percent of visitors to CRFS were associated with UVU this year. The University of Kansas and the Utah Science Teachers Association were other major sources of visitation (Fig. 2). Visitors from UVU represented a variety of colleges, programs, and schools (Fig. 3). Our top three sources of visitation were the College of Science & Health, Community & Continuing Education, and the School of the Arts. We remain committed to our interdisciplinary focus that includes University College, the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, the Honors program, and Multicultural Student Services. During the 2014-15 fiscal year, 616 people (including 450 undergraduates) visited CRFS in 49 groups. The average group size was 13 and the average overnight stay per group was 2 nights. In terms of Fig. 2 Percentages of CRFS user days from Fig. 3 Percentages of CRFS user days from gender, 53% of our visitors were various institutions and organizations. colleges, schools, or programs associated female and 47% were male. with UVU. Visitation Summary 7 visitation summary (continued) 8 crfs 2014-2015 annual report Visitation Summary 9 engaged Engaged learning is a core theme learning of UVU, and it is central to the mission of the field station. Engaged learning is much more than interesting content. It provides students with hands-on experiences with what they’re studying. It provides real- world context and applications for classroom knowledge. In short, engaged learning takes studying out of the textbook and brings it to life. Our visitors at the field station almost uniformly find CRFS to be an ideal location for engaged learning activities (Fig. 4) and report that CRFS provides unique experiences not available on campus (Fig. 5). Please read the following short summaries to learn more about some of our visitors this year. 10 crfs 2014-2015 annual report Fig. 4 Ninety-nine percent of our visitors (n = 393) strongly Fig. 5 Ninety-five percent of our visitors (n = 396) strongly agreed (88%) or agreed (11%) that their educational/ agreed (87%) or agreed (8%) that the engaged learning learning experience was enhanced by their visit to the activities and environment at the field station are difficult field station. to replicate on campus. Engaged Learning 11 Drs. James Bemel and Mary Brown visited the field station with six students engaged to assess and discuss environmental health topics that could be found and learning illustrated in the surrounding area. (continued) Prior to their trip, Dr. Bemel submitted a proposal to our grant program and was awarded funding for their visit, which was a curricular innovation. In describing the trip, Dr. Bemel speaks about the needs-assessment the group did in the local towns. He explains, “The assessment was designed to determine the availability of healthy foods in each town. The students were split into two teams with one faculty member accompanying each team. The towns were split into ‘east’ and ‘west’ groups based on their location compared to the Capitol Reef National Park Visitor Center. A large amount of data was collected by the students, providing them a real-world opportunity to apply what Public & they had learned in HLTH 4140.” Community Health, UVU July 10-13, 2014 12 crfs 2014-2015 annual report Every fall semester, Dr. Michael For the two forests, they made Stevens takes his Plant Ecology assessments of species richness students to the field station to study and diversity, productivity, various plant communities.