Living with Wildlife

The Swaner Preserve exists firmly on the wildland-urban interface, as does the majority of Summit County. Interactions between wildlife and people occur often, and resources exist to protect human health, property, and the safety of wildlife.

Wildlife Rehabilitation and Rescue

Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter does not accept injured wildlife for rehabilitation and is not licensed or equipped for this work.

Wildlife Safety

Wild Aware Utah is an education program providing Utah residents and visitors with wildlife awareness and safety information. Check out their wildlife specific pages with everything from arachnids to voles!

Utah State University's Berryman Institute focuses on improving wildlife-human interactions through research, education, outreach, and extension.

Webinars

Living with Beavers

North American beavers, Castor canadensis, are ecosystem engineers and keystone species- creating and maintaining wetlands on the Swaner Preserve. Living with beavers- including the dams they build and chewing they do- is possible with some creative solutions. 

Protecting Trees

Wrapping trees with durable fencing can prevent chewing.

• Learn more with the Swaner Beaver Tree Protection information sheet
• More information from The Beaver Institute

Dams and Flooding

Beaver deceivers and pond levelers can help prevent flooding when beavers dam culverts or are too close to infrastructure. 

• Blocked culverts and drains
• Beaver dam flooding
  

More Resources

Sometimes, beavers can’t coexist with humans in an area. In comes the Beaver Ecology and Relocation Collaborative, part of Utah State University.

Learn more about research on beavers and beaver dam analogs for restoration on our research page or stream restoration page.

Dark Skies Initiatives

Migratory birds, wildlife, and humans are positively impacted by dark night skies. Light pollution confuses migratory contributing to an increase in window strikes and bird death. Wildlife migration, mating, and behavior heavily rely on dark skies.

Simple Solutions

There are easy and inexpensive ways you can help decrease light pollution.  

• Turn unnecessary outdoor lights off from 11 pm-6 am.
• Close curtains and blinds at night to reduce the impact of indoor light.
• Keep necessary light shielded, pointed downward, and low to the ground.
• Use long-wavelength, warm colored bulbs.
• Be an advocate for local dark sky initiatives in your community. 

Local Efforts

Summit County  and Park City have dark sky initiatives that include regulations for lighting on new and existing buildings.  

• Park City Land Management Code Section 15-5-5(J)
• Summit County Development Code
  • Snyderville Basin Section 10-4-21
  • Eastern Summit County 11-6-20 

Live in the Wasatch front? Check out Tracy Aviary’s Lights Out Salt Lake or Great Salt Lake Audubon. 

Photo of Swaner EcoCenter during the northern lights is by Rory Caskey.