Petroglyph National Monument

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.

Managing problematic social trails and formalizing trail networks requires careful consideration. As part of this management need, the Southern Colorado Plateau Network conducted a breeding bird inventory at Petroglyph National Monument, especially along a unique rocky escarpment which may represent important raptor breeding habitat.

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.

Cinder cones are typically simple volcanoes that consist of accumulations of ash and cinders around a vent. Sunset Crater Volcano and Capulin Volcano are cinder cones.

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.

The data packages for all our long-term monitoring efforts across the Southern Colorado Plateau are the foundations for almost everything we do here. We recently underwent our biggest effort yet in reformatting our data to fit the new standards put out by the Inventory & Monitoring Division. We are proud to announce that two of our largest datasets have now been published and are available for everyone to utilize.

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

Petroglyph National Monument (PETR), encompassing 7,212 acres, is situated on the edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico. As surrounding land is rapidly developed, there has been an increase in visitor traffic that potentially strains natural resources, including bat populations. To better understand bat presence, SCPN partners at the Conservation Management Institute conducted inventories at ten locations throughout the park, resulting in the detection of 21 different species.