Wildlife Conservation

Awareness & Understanding

Utah sits at a crossroads of three major bird migration flyways, and the Great Salt Lake is one of the most important wildlife stopovers in North America — hosting up to 10 million birds a year. But shrinking habitat, pollution, and urban sprawl put local wildlife under real pressure. Start by watching the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's "All About Birds" intro videos on YouTube and downloading the free Merlin Bird ID app on your phone. Take a 20-minute walk in your neighborhood or a local park like Liberty Park or Millcreek Canyon and identify at least five different animals — birds, insects, anything living. You're ready for the next step when you can name five local wildlife species you spotted and describe one challenge each one faces in an urban environment.

Research & Investigation

Pick one local wildlife species that interests you most — a bird, pollinator, reptile, or mammal found in the Salt Lake Valley — and research it seriously. Use iNaturalist.org to look up observation records near you and see where others have spotted your species locally. Read the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources species profile at wildlife.utah.gov. Find out what your species eats, where it nests or shelters, how urban development affects it, and whether it is a species of concern in Utah. Take notes you can actually use later. You're ready for the next step when you can explain your chosen species' life cycle, local habitat needs, and the top two threats it faces in the Salt Lake area.

Planning & Preparation

Design a specific habitat improvement project for your backyard, schoolyard, or community space that directly benefits your chosen species. If you picked pollinators, plan a native plant garden using the Utah Native Plant Society's plant list at unps.org. If you picked birds, design a feeding station with native seed sources or a water feature. Map out your plan on paper: what you will add, where it goes, what it costs, and who needs to give you permission. Check whether your city qualifies for a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat at nwf.org. You're ready for the next step when you have a written habitat project plan with a materials list, a location, and at least one adult who has agreed to help you carry it out.

Taking Action

Build or install your habitat improvement. Document every step with photos. If you are planting native plants, record the species names and note which ones attract your target wildlife first. If you installed a bird feeder, bird bath, or bee house, log observations every few days — what shows up, when, and how often. Use the iNaturalist app to submit your wildlife sightings and add them to local citizen science data that researchers actually use. Keep a field journal for at least three weeks. You're ready for the next step when you have three weeks of observation logs and at least one photo showing wildlife using the habitat feature you created.

Leadership & Expansion

Take your project public. Write a short guide — one page or a brief video — explaining how anyone in SLC can create a backyard wildlife habitat for the same species you chose. Share it with your school's science class, post it to iNaturalist as a journal entry, or submit it to Tracy Aviary's community blog. Contact the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources or Tracy Aviary's conservation education team about youth volunteer opportunities. Help at least three other people start their own habitat projects. You're ready for the next step when you can show that at least three other people took a concrete action toward wildlife habitat because of your guidance.

Impact & Reflection

Review your full six weeks of work. Add up your iNaturalist observations and calculate how many wildlife sightings your habitat generated. Write a one-to-two page reflection answering: What did you learn that surprised you? How did your habitat change over time? What would you scale up if you had more resources? Connect your local effort to the Great Salt Lake ecosystem — every patch of urban habitat is a stepping stone for migrating species. Share your final reflection and observation data publicly on iNaturalist or with a local wildlife organization. You're ready for the next step when you can present your observation data, describe your habitat's measurable impact, and explain how local urban wildlife connects to Utah's larger ecosystem.