Instagram story viewer> @zachcoury> Tagged

Zach Coury

@zachcoury

24.5K

followers

523

following

Botanist, based in Utah 🌼
I tell stories about plants.
All opinions on this page are exclusively my own.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

📍 snapshots from my favorite work trip of all time.

After two summers spent fighting to protect Utah’s national monuments with my colleagues at @wildernesssociety, wrapping this season by taking creators down to visit these landscapes and witness ‘em with our own eyes was the most joyous and heartbreaking gift.

To hear about these places and why they matter is one thing—but to go down there, and BE amongst the rocks and the birds and the wildflowers and the lizards and the cryptobiotic soil, it’s a different type of impact. I would do anything for this land.

I’ve been to all these places before, but coming back through the lens of seeing these once-protected places now removed from monument boundaries was a new gut punch.

While planning this trip, I had to toil over before/after boundary maps, because the TWS team sent us to specifically visit places that were no longer protected.

Turns out, nearly every single one of my ‘saved pins’ collection of places I’ve camped, loved to hike, wanted to visit again—were all now outside of protected boundaries.

This trip was easy to organize, because all of these places I love are under attack. 🫠

Y’all I am so tired, I am so so so so so tired—and I know that everyone else is too. But after witnessing what’s at stake, remembering why I fight for these places, and filling my soul + belly up with other humans who care—I’m more committed to this advocacy than ever.

More to come from this trip, I haven’t even shared the stories from getting to send creators into a tiny airplane over Bears Ears yet!

3

13

Ashley Moody: “America First” or America Second? | AIPAC A$$HOLE #45 ✌🏼 VOTE Angie Nixon

8k

438

“The sheer volume of mining claims filed (72) so far in the land cut from Bears Ears National Monument should dispel any lingering illusion about the administration’s true aim,” said Charlie Luke, Utah State Director for The Wilderness Society. “The president and the Utah delegation, led by Senator Lee, would sacrifice irreplaceable cultural resources, wildlife habitat, clean air and water, and our freedom to experience this magnificent place for the short-term profit of a few. We owe future generations a Bears Ears that remains healthy, intact and conserved.” Thanks to Light Hawk for flying us over the areas previously protected from mining under monument status and for Chaitna and Kaya from Grand Canyon Trust for joining me on the ground later in the trip.

136

8

earlier this month, @zachcoury was nice enough to let me tag along and help him look at some of the vegetation regrowth from the Dry Creek Fire in 2025. I really recommend you go check out his small series he did on local Salt Lake fires and its effect on vegetation after 1, 2, and 3 years.

64

3

Earlier this week I explored some of the vast areas recently removed from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument with some amazing wilderness advocates. Unbelievable that the current administration deems these places to be unworthy of monument designation. The history and legacy of these places are far more valuable than what can be extracted beneath the surface for short term financial gain.

163

6

This is why we love scientific names.

Named for botanist William Gambel. *Quercus gambellii

Its wood is similar to boxwood, while its divided leaves look like elderberry plants.

Tooth describes the dramatic lobes of this maple.

Honestly I still don’t think the flowers are that small. Fishhook refers to the curved cactus spines.

This mean false or fake toadflax. Toadflax is an Eurasian group that includes some weeds in Utah.

The seed pods are thought to look like spectacles or binoculars, like a tourist might use.

First collected by Marc A Baker. Kingcup probably describes the goblet shaped flowers, but might be a reference to a marsh marigold also called a Kingcup.

Yeah no idea.

Spineless here refers to the lack of pokey spines that most other species in this group have.

Rattlesnake describes the cool pattern on the leaves, while plantain is a reference to Plantago, a genus of usually small, weedy plants called plantains which this orchid somewhat resembles. The plantain fruit is a type of banana in the genus Musa that is often cooked.

7k

110

It can be confusing to know what someone means when they say that a plant is “native.” At UNPS, we use this for a plant that is in the arbitrary boundaries of the state of Utah. A lot of resources use “native” for any plant from the United States. Not sure if a plant is native to your ecoregion or to Utah? Ask us!

333

15

Come with me to crew someone for the WURL! With a lot of profanity
#utah #wurl #hiking #mountains #adventure

183

18

#EverythingtRUMPTouchesDies

Reposted Courtesy of @zachcoury

I would love to not have to post about our #NationalMonuments, but here we go again. #tRUMP is expected to massively reduce or completely eliminate #BearsEars NM and #GrandStaircaseEscalante NM on Monday.

We don’t know the full details yet, but whatever he does will be massively destructive for the protection of wilderness, cultural sites, and the many rare plants that depend on the monuments’ existence. We have so few wild spaces left in this world and these attacks are truly the opposite of what we need right now. A love of wilderness ought to be a unifying trait in such a divided time, and it is hard for me to picture any Utahns that would be happy about this move.

Please use the link in my bio to submit your disapproval of this attack, and be prepared to keep resisting it in the coming days and weeks.

166

8

Some pics from my summer in plant world so far🩷

3

5

We’ve made it to our last major ecoregion of Utah: the Colorado Plateau! This list is especially for those of you in the Uinta Basin, Canyon Country, and all the other gorgeous areas in the Colorado Plateau. Take a look at some of our favorite plants that call this ecoregion home.

974

22

The most requested ecoregion to feature next was the Rocky Mountains! This region highlights how important it is to choose appropriate plants for your garden, as a lot of these would struggle in a xeric yard in a hot valley. For our friends in high places and those with cooler microclimates, this is the list for you! #nativeplants #rockymountains #wasatch #utah #utahnativeplants

363

9