Holly Strand
Holly is a Communications Specialist for the State of Utah’s Division of Emergency Management. A geographer by training, Holly received her master’s degree from the University of Colorado. She worked 10 years for World Wildlife Fund, helping collect expert knowledge to map and describe conservation priorities in biodiverse regions around the world. Before that, she led specialty tours to northern and eastern Eurasia. Over twenty years of professional work in great places with unique habitats and endemic species has given Holly an appreciation of what’s special within the Utah landscape.
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Rivers and creeks all over the state have been running high with melted snow from the biggest snowpack ever recorded in Utah. 1983 was last time we had anything near this amount of snowmelt fueling our spring runoff. This year, with a historic snowpack, it seems like we should be experiencing more 100-year floods or even 500-year floods. -
Sockeye and Kokanee salmon spawn in freshwater, then move to a nursery lake to grow. Then sockeye migrate to the ocean and kokanee remain in the lake. -
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Are we in the Rockies: Is the Bear River Range really in the Rockies? Are the Wasatch Mountains in general? Some say no, the basin and range region... -
Endemic plants of Utah: Utah ranks sixth in the nation for its number of endemic species. Only Hawaii, California, Texas, Florida and Georgia have more. Utah hosts 247 endemics out of 2602 unique plants in all, plus 393 subspecies or varieties. -
The Perseids meteor shower is an increase in meteor activity when the Earth passes through a trail of comet debris also in orbit about the Sun. -
The Colorado Plateau is dissected by the Colorado River and its tributaries exposing a deep and colorful geologic history. A predominance of red bed deposits has prompted the nickname “red rock country.” -
Remembering Euell Gibbons: He was famous as a naturalist and connoisseur of wild foods in the 1960’s. His best known works were the book “Stalking the Wild Asparagus” and the commercial where he asked “Ever eat a pine tree? You know …some parts are edible.” -
The eyes have it: Eyeshine occurs when light enters the eye and is reflected back through the eye to the light source. The reflection is from a membrane... -
The Bear Facts Old Ephraim: Twelve miles up Logan Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains is his grave. Ephraim was the last grizzly bear seen in Utah.
