Colorado National Monument

John Otto

Seven rangers were awarded with a national or regional 2010 Freeman Tilden Award for excellence in interpretation. Learn more about their exciting and innovative projects.

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.

“Paa” ute means water ute, and explains the Southern Paiute preference for living near water sources. The Spanish explorer Escalante kept detailed journals of his travels in the Southwest and made notes concerning Southern Paiute horticulture, writing in 1776, that there were “well dug irrigation ditches” being used to water small fields of corn, pumpkins, squash, and sunflowers.

Birds are found just about everywhere. Even when you can’t see them, you can often hear them. Bird diversity changes depending on location and season. Birds can be enjoyed in so many different ways: watching their activity, listening to their songs, noting their plumage, or capturing their likeness through art. Use this guide to learn more about birds and birding.

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.

Colorado National Monument supports a persistent pinyon-juniper (PJ) woodland that has not been disturbed by large, stand-replacing fires since modern fire recordkeeping began. Due to their long fire-free intervals, these persistent woodlands offer a rare look at how long-term influences, such as climatic variability or disturbances other than fire, can influence woodland structure and development.

Ever wondered what those dark lines were on the rock walls of canyon country? These black, brown, and red streaks are called desert varnish.

Dinosaur fossils have been discovered at or are associated with at least 27 NPS units. Geographically, their finds are concentrated in the parks of the Colorado Plateau, but they have been found from central Alaska to Big Bend National Park in Texas to Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Massachusetts. The most famous site is the Dinosaur Quarry of Dinosaur National Monument, but a rush of new finds since the 1970s has greatly expanded our knowledge.