Aztec Ruins National Monument

Ann Axtell Morris

Earl Morris

Frank "Boss" Pinkley

In spring 2011, the SCPN-NAU School of Communication collaboration began with a multimedia studies course focused on documenting park resources and resource projects. The class was taught by NAU professors Laura Camden and Peter Friederici.

Each National Park Service (NPS) employee has a unique story. We can't tell them all, but sometimes there's a personal account—like that of Sallie Pierce Brewer Van Valkenburg Harris—that speaks to common experiences. Although her NPS connections ran from 1933 to 1971, many of her joys, challenges, and frustrations can still be recognized in the NPS today. Sallie's story resonates regardless of era, gender, or position. How will it speak to you?

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) did for National Park Service (NPS) education programs what the better-known Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did for park roads, trails, and buildings. Many artists—including a large number of women—were hired with WPA funding to create art and exhibits in parks around the country. Natasha D. Smith was one of those women. She led a life dedicated to art, wildlife, and environmental conservation.

When the climate changes enough, the vegetation communities growing in any given place will also change. Under an expanded bimodal climate zone, some plant communities in western national parks are more likely to change than others. National Park Service ecologists and partners investigated the future conditions that may force some of this change. Having this information can help park managers decide whether to resist, direct, or accept the change.

On my drive out west toward Grand Canyon this year, I had the chance to stop at a few Ancestral Puebloan sites – namely, Bandelier, Chaco Culture, and Aztec Ruins. Having worked and spent some time around these types of sites before, I felt like I was seeing and appreciating these special places on a much deeper level than even I realized was possible.

People in the past carved petroglyphs and painted pictographs to mark the cycle of the sun, moon, and stars; solstices; and the changing seasons. They tracked time by creating solar calendars that interacted with light and shadow as the sun moved across the sky. When unique astronomical events took place, they documented the moment in stone. Learn more about the purpose for these images.

Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.

The combination of high. elevation and a semi-arid climate makes the Colorado Plateau particularly vulnerable to climate change. Climate models predict that over the next 100 years, the Southwest will become warmer and even more arid, with more extreme droughts than the region has experienced in the recent past.