A Utah State University ethics board has reinstated researchers’ permits to study moose and human interactions in Summit County.
Professor David Stoner, the principal investigator on the project, says his student was reinstalling wildlife cameras on Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District trails this week.
The two-year study is meant to document when and where humans might encounter aggressive moose.
Stoner says females get protective of their calves in the late spring, and males get aggressive during the fall mating season.
“Although that's not really what we're seeking to establish,” Stoner told KPCW. “We’re really taking that as the facts of the matter, and then trying to develop some educational materials around those patterns so that public lands users can make informed choices about the timing and locations of recreation.”
Emails between USU and Basin Rec staff obtained by KPCW through a public records request show eight cameras were installed in late July before the mating season, called the rut.
Researchers placed cameras about a mile from major Basin Rec trailheads, and signs informed trail users about the project, including that data is anonymized.
But the Sun Peak homeowners association said a couple of cameras were on private land. Other emails reviewed by KPCW show a Park City-area resident also reached out to USU’s Institutional Review Board over privacy concerns. IRB put the study on hold until a few days ago.
“They realized that there were a few more administrative things they needed to do. So they went ahead and removed the cameras that they had installed,” Basin Rec District Director Robert Parrish, said. “They went: Go, ready, then set.”
Emails show that researchers contacted Basin Rec open space and trails staff and received informal approval over the summer. Parrish says Basin Rec didn’t have a policy, at the time, about how to handle those requests.
He got involved after the Sun Peak HOA raised concerns and has now formalized the agreement between the district and USU with a contract called an interlocal agreement.
“While I was doing that, I also set up some policy for staff to follow some guidance on what they need to do,” Parrish said.
He’s eager to see the data that Stoner’s team collects.
In September, while the study was paused, a moose severely trampled a tourist on Rob’s trail. Parrish says understanding moose migratory habits can improve how Basin Rec communicates with trail users.
“The other thing is that, if I have to make a decision on closing a trail, even — to respect that boundary, keep people safe, and keep the moose safe — I need to have that information,” Parrish said. “I can't just say randomly, ‘Well, I'm going to close this trail because we think there's moose in the area.’”
USU published an article about the cameras it uses to collect the data Sept. 15, the same day as the moose trampling on Rob’s.
Stoner says the cameras are not video cameras; they take photos. And from the beginning, if they captured humans, those people were blurred out.
He also says the photos aren’t being stored in the cloud, only locally, and they’ll be destroyed after data from them is recorded.
Stoner says the study also uses anonymous data from cell phone pings and moose trackers installed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
“There’s a lot of effort going into trying to minimize conflict and enhance conservation of this species, this iconic species that we just happen to be at the very southern edge of its natural distribution,” Stoner said. “We’re very fortunate to have them, but we also need to be very mindful of their behavior and their patterns and try to accommodate that.”
Not much is changing after the study’s false start, except there won’t be cameras in Sun Peak anymore, only on public land.
Basin Rec is a financial supporter of KPCW.
