 Plants and animals are excellent indicators. They live where they live for very good reasons and they tell you something about the place when you see them there. I'm here on a sandy hillside east of Casper. Let's look at the kinds of plants that live in this kind of place. Right behind me is a species of grass that is characteristic of sandy sites. It's called prairie sand reed. This plant is found exclusively on sandy areas around Wyoming. You can see that plants actually help create the environment they need for their existence. This prairie sand reed is piling up the sand and the snow that it needs as a moisture source and that creates the conditions on which it thrives. A few other indicators of sandy sites are Indian rice grass, needle and thread grass, and sand drop seed. When you're walking or driving around Wyoming, just remember that plants are indicators of an environment. In this case, a sandy environment. I'm Gene Gade from the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service.