Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve

Frank "Boss" Pinkley

Humor is a form of commentary that often reveals serious truths. Cartoonists combine artistic talents with razor-sharp wits to shine light on political and social issues. In most cases, those artists are external observers. In the National Park Service (NPS), employees in the 1960s to 1980s drew cartoons, published in official newsletters, that provide unique insights into NPS organizational culture, working conditions, and employees' concerns—many of which still exist today.

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.

NPS scientists are monitoring vegetation at the tops of some of our parks’ most beautiful peaks. The monitoring is part of an international program to find out how alpine vegetation is responding to stressors, such as warming temperatures and air-borne pollutants. A recent project—the first assessment of data from sites in four national parks and one national forest in the U.S. Rocky Mountains—discovered changes in the types and abundances of alpine plant species.

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.

In 2007, the Rocky Mountain Inventory and Monitoring Network—a small team of NPS scientists—began monitoring natural resources, called “vital signs,” in Great Sand Dunes and nearby park units. Vital signs indicate park health and serve as red flags if conditions deteriorate, supporting park managers’ efforts to make science-based management decisions. Learn about the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Division and its work in Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Few things look more pristine than a fresh blanket of snow, yet each snowflake naturally carries small particles from the atmosphere. When snowflakes build around these particles, the resulting snowfall can bring pollutants from far away into our national parks. Long-term snow chemistry monitoring is showing some improvements in air quality at Glacier and Rocky Mountain National Parks, and Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Read the abstract and get the link to a published paper on how dragonfly mercury studies uncover unexpected atmospheric delivery pathways: Janssen, S.E., C.J. Kotalik, J.J. Willacker, M.T. Tate, C. Flanagan Pritz, S.J. Nelson, D.P. Krabbenhoft, D. Walters, and C. Eagles-Smith. 2024. Geographic Drivers of Mercury Entry into Aquatic Foods Webs Revealed by Mercury Stable Isotopes in Dragonfly Larvae. Environmental Science & Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c02436

Pinyon pine trees are scattered here and there. Sunflowers and Rocky Mountain beeplants abound among the tall grasses... Lisa Devore shares her favorite view at Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve.