The Southern Colorado Plateau Network produced the following podcasts, videos and multimedia projects highlighting science and natural resources in network parks.
Multimedia
Petrified Forest National Park: A Place for Birds
Birds have always lived in the place that is now Petrified Forest National Park. Dinosaurs that were the direct ancestors of modern-day birds lived in this area more than 200 million years ago. Their fossilized remains are found throughout the park. In prehistoric times, people carved bird likenesses in the rocks and cliffs throughout the area. Today, the park protects 257 species of birds. For many, the park's grasslands represent critical breeding, migratory stopover, and wintering habitats. To find out how we study birds, what we are learning, and where you can find birds in the park, check out our new beautifully illustrated story map.
Podcasts
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Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring
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Aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages are monitored annually along 1–3 reaches of selected streams in five parks in the Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN). In this podcast, recorded in October 2010, SCPN aquatic ecologist Stacy Stumpf explains why monitoring aquatic invertebrates helps parks to protect streams.
- Credit / Author:
- Kelly Reeve
- Date created:
- 10/15/2010
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Integrated Upland Vegetation Monitoring
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Since 2007, the Southern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring Network has been annually monitoring vegetation and soils in national parks on the southern Colorado Plateau, focusing on the ecosystems of greatest concern to park managers. In this podcast, recorded in August 2010, botanist Megan Swan describes the objectives and methods used in monitoring upland vegetation; and George San Miguel, natural resource manager for Mesa Verde National Park, explains why monitoring is important to natural resource management.
- Credit / Author:
- Kelly Reeve
- Date created:
- 08/30/2010
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Heiser Spring Restoration
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Paul Whitefield, natural resource specialist, describes the history and restoration of Heiser Spring at Wupatki National Monument. Recorded in August 2010 and August 2011.
- Date created:
- 08/30/2011
Videos
Starry Nights over Chaco Culture National Historical Park
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- Duration:
- 11 minutes, 31 seconds
Night skies over Chaco Culture National Historical Park are much the same as they were a thousand years ago, when the ancient Chacoan people inhabited Chaco Canyon. In fact, the park is one of the best places in the country to stargaze and experience natural darkness.
From the brink of extinction to the path of survival: The sentry milk-vetch recovery project
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- Duration:
- 8 minutes, 10 seconds
The tiny, federally endangered sentry milk-vetch (Astragalus cremnophylax var. cremnophylax) is a perennial herb that forms a one inch tall by eight inch wide mat in shallow pockets of soil on the Kaibab limestone. It is endemic to the Grand Canyon, and only grows within 25 feet of the canyon rim. Since 2006, when the Sentry Milk-Vetch Recovery Plan was completed, Grand Canyon National Park has partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Arboretum at Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon Association to reverse the decline of this species.
70 years of montane forest change in Grand Canyon National Park
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- Duration:
- 6 minutes, 8 seconds
The chance rediscovery in Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA) of an early 1900s dataset used to create the park’s first vegetation map led to a rare opportunity to examine forest change in the park since 1935. In 2004, ecologist John Vankat led an effort to resample the historical plots, and shares his conclusions about forest development and the wide range of ecological conditions characterizing GRCA ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, and spruce-fir forests.
Archeology in the Expansion Lands at Petrified Forest National Park
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- Duration:
- 4 minutes, 42 seconds
In 2011, Petrified Forest National Park acquired more than 26,000 acres of land which were expected to yield a significant number of archeological sites new to science. The results of informal surveys in 2012 far exceeded expectations. Every time archeologist Bill Reitze went out to these new areas of the park, he would discover something new, including magnificent petroglyph panels and extensive pueblo sites.
New finds at Petrified Forest National Park: Long-nosed leopard lizard
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- Duration:
- 4 minutes, 49 seconds
The long-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia wislizenii) is a large lizard, with an adult body length about 5 ½ inches long and a tail that can be twice as long as the body. It inhabits desert scrub and semi-arid grasslands and, in Arizona, is found throughout the southern and western portions of the state, as well as in the northeastern plateau region. In 2012 researchers discovered it at Petrified Forest National Park, the lizard’s first documented occurrence in the park.
Paleontology at Petrified Forest National Park: Revueltosaurus callenderi
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- Duration:
- 4 minutes, 41 seconds
In 2004 at Petrified Forest National Park paleontologist Bill Parker discovered a graveyard, or quarry, of the bones of a crocodile-like creature that lived about 215 million years ago. In 2006 he found the first nearly complete Revueltosaurus callenderi skeleton. By 2012 they had found eleven individuals, including one well-preserved skeleton that provided some of the previously missing pieces.
Last updated: August 11, 2023