Campus safari: The wild side of college life
With a canyon in its backyard, Utah State University is home to thousands of living, breathing non-student beings. Deer, squirrels, cats, birds, bees and the occasional mountain lion can wander the campus, searching for a snack or a place to rest like any other Aggie. These animals are here to stay, and many factors are at play to ensure a peaceful co-existence.
Shane Richards, a USU alum who studied horticulture and park management, is USU’s Landscape Operations and Management manager.
“A lot of people don’t realize there’s wildlife around on campus,” Richards said. “Part of planning is where can we afford to have the wildlife in the campus landscaping. We create an environment that fosters both groups.”
Richards explained one of the most prominent wildlife groups LOAM has to account for is the large deer population. He estimates there are about 20 to 100 deer per season on campus, ranging from young fawns to intimidating bucks.
Some spots have resident deer herds, but the LOAM team tries to keep them safe and away from most residents. Their solution is to keep the deer in an area fondly known as “the pit” on the other side of 400 N.
“One of our biggest challenges is deer,” Richards said. “They’re pretty smart. We’re conscientious to keep the deer on the other side of the road to keep them happy. We provide good feed and a good habitat.”
However, the animals still find a way onto campus, affecting how flower beds and other landscaping features are designed.
“When we plant tulips, they’re like a candy treat to deer and other animals,” Richards said. “There are some tulips that are deer-resistant, but they’re limited in color, scope and size. We’ve planted about 8,000 to 10,000 tulips in the past two years, with many of these being deer-resistant.”
Tulips aren’t the only plants that require a shift in plans when the paws come out. The campus squirrels must also be considered during garden and yard work.
“We’re in the thousands of squirrels,” Richards said. “The animals are smart; we have to be conscious of where we put trees that produce fruit or nuts.”
Insects and pollinators are also essential aspects of the environment that LOAM preserves.
Marci Stevens, a LOAM employee, helped spearhead the work that led to USU receiving a Bee Campus USA designation, given to universities who make commitments to preserve native pollinators.
Stevens works to promote sustainable gardening practices and the preservation of pollinators.
“We’re specifically interested in protecting bees, but it also includes other invertebrates,” Stevens said. “We provide a habitat for them by planting flowers and keeping everything pretty cool.”
Stevens said campus is home to several types of bees.
“We actually have a honeybee hive that is a wild hive on campus, and they’re kind of tucked into a hollow tree log,” Stevens said. “They don’t bother anybody. They can just handle life on their own, and we just made sure that we stay clear of them and let them live their lives. We also have native sweat bees in a couple of different places on campus. We have three or four different varieties of bumblebees on campus as well.”
Stevens’s goal is to limit the pesticides used on campus by introducing natural predators to the environment to limit the bugs.
“We have certain areas on campus that we’re going to make completely pesticide-free so we can keep those bad chemicals out of our ecosystem,” Stevens said.
Stevens isn’t just a bee-lover. She also aims to have USU registered as a Monarch Waystation, and she’s a fan of spiders because they naturally keep the pests at bay.
“We do also have a pretty good ecosystem of spiders on campus,” Stevens said. “We have some great big yellow-banded garden spiders. They’re huge, and they are very startling when you go into a flower bed and ‘Spider!’, but are also a good one to kind of keep the pests down.”
Even though Stevens specializes in creepy crawlies, she also knows the secret lives of animals on campus. One example is the outdoor cats.
“We have a cat population on campus, and they have a couple of feeding stations,” Stevens said. “Those cats helped keep our mice population down, which is nice, and they also keep the squirrel population in check.”
In regards to the safety concerns of having wildlife on campus, the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources handles emergency cases and safety precautions.
One unique example was on Feb. 13, when a mountain lion was spotted on campus.
Faith Heaton Jolley, public information officer for DWR, said the DWR team sedated, cared for and safely released the 2-year-old female puma.
Jolley said DWR’s role is to keep animals and people safe. With the rising population in Utah, their work of helping the local fauna find a safe place to roam is gaining importance.
Jolley said what matters most when encountering wild animals is to let them be.
“One kind of issue that we see is people not keeping wildlife wild,” Jolley said. “Make sure you are not doing things to draw wildlife to an urban area. Make sure you know how to react when around wildlife.”
Jolley recommended visiting wildawareutah.org for further information about wildlife safety.
When it comes to having a balanced, sustainable campus, Richards said wildlife is a crucial piece of the environmental puzzle of northern Utah.
“If we have wildlife, we know the landscape is feeling natural,” Richards said. “When it’s too industrial, the animals aren’t there. We want us to co-exist; it helps us gauge the health of our ecosystem.”
Richards said his goal is sustainability for USU. He has pushed for composting and lessening pesticides.
“As I’ve professionally grown, I’ve seen how the ecosystem works together,” Richards said. “The key is to balance. I think it would be really boring to have an environment where animals don’t feel as comfortable as people do. We do it strategically so it’s not uncomfortable or causes conflict.”
Richards said getting to follow his passions at his alma mater was the cherry on top of a great deal. He loves that he gets variety in his job, and gets to be a part of keeping USU beautiful.
“What I like best is LOAM keeps me involved with people, animals and plants and dirt and water,” Richards said. “I find a lot of satisfaction in that. I get to go prune trees and tend flowers or talk to classes and help students.”