Navajo National Monument

Frank "Boss" Pinkley

Sallie Pierce Brewer Van Valkenburg Harris

Hopa Mountain, in partnership with the National Park Service, is pleased to announce the 2019 awardees of the Connecting with our Homelands travel grants. Twenty-one Indigenous organizations, schools, and nonprofits have been awarded travel funds for trips to national park units across 12 states/territories within the United States.

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?

During my YLCC internship this summer, I worked to document how climate change is affecting Navajo National Monument located on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. I documented the ongoing erosion and deposition occurring within Keet Seel canyon and reconstructed the 2011 Keet Seel Canyon flood. This was an extremely large event, and with climate change, we can expect to see these types of events becoming more frequent.

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.

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.

The Black-throated Sparrow edition of Get to Know the Plateau, spotlighting a beautiful bird of the Colorado Plateau. Brought to you by the Southern Colorado Plateau Network.