John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Recipients of the 2011 NPS Environmental Achievement Awards

Mammoths, mastodons, and other proboscideans are among the most familiar fossil organisms. An inventory complied by Jim Mead and others documents the occurrences of these animals in 63 National Park Service units.

The iconic National Park Service arrowhead emblem was created in 1949 by Dr. Aubrey Neasham. He used symbols to show us ideas and themes important to the National Parks. What do you think they the symbols mean? Find out more by completing this activity and then create your own arrowhead for specifically for John Day Fossil Bed!

Trees shade us from the sun, provide homes for wildlife, stabilize Earth’s surface, and produce food for humans and animals alike. Some are massive, and others are miniscule by comparison, but what makes one better than the other—we’ll let you decide! Check out our iconic trees below and find your favorite!

Thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, NPS projects in the West hope to collect native seeds to aide in accelerating repairs to damage due to wildfire, mining, flood, or other causes.

The Cant Ranch Historic District is located in the Sheep Rock Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument established in 1974. The Cant Ranch Historic District, as established in the 1984 National Register nomination, is a 200-acre vernacular landscape that documents early 20th century ranching operations in the John Day River Valley.

The Cenozoic Era (66 million years ago [MYA] through today) is the "Age of Mammals." North America’s characteristic landscapes began to develop during the Cenozoic. Birds and mammals rose in prominence after the extinction of giant reptiles. Common Cenozoic fossils include cat-like carnivores and early horses, as well as ice age woolly mammoths.

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.