Reflection Canyon • A yellow tape measure ran down a sandy, sagebrush-dotted bench, crossed a shallow stream where toads hopped through the shadows, and disappeared into a dense stand of willow.
Research ecologist Seth Arens was hidden in the bushes, shouting out the scientific names of plants to an assistant who sat in the shade of a young cottonwood tree with a pen and clipboard.
“Sporobolus cryptandrus,” Arens said, using the Latin name for the native bunch grass commonly known as sand dropseed and noting the density of each species in one-meter plots along his tape measure...