Stewardship

Southern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring Network bird monitoring allows scientists to track bird numbers, diversity, and habitat relationships. However, it is less able to identify reasons for changes in bird populations. The Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship program (MAPS) is complementary in that regard. It collects demographic data such as bird reproduction and survival rates. Bandelier and Mesa Verde implemented MAPS programs in 2010.

Wupatki, Heiser, and Peshlaki springs were historically the sole sources of perennial water where Wupatki National Monument now stands. As Wupatki Spring was developed, flow declined and eventually ceased in 1959. In the early 2000s, the National Park Service decided to remove remaining water diversion structures and attempt to establish a small area of riparian vegetation to enhance wildlife habitat in the area. Restoration began in 2007.

At a time when bat populations are at a greater risk of extinction, the National Park Service has a strategic role to play in continent-wide bat conservation. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is participating in the North American Bat Monitoring Program, conducting acoustic surveys and netting bats throughout the park. In addition, park scientists are involving youth in bat monitoring projects and bringing bat science to the public by hosting annual bat festivals.

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.

The Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN) of the National Park Service has been partnering with the Northern Arizona University (NAU) School of Communication since 2011 to develop student multimedia projects that highlight resources and activities in network parks. This collaboration gives NAU students hands-on experience in creating multimedia projects and provides network parks with products that can help to promote their unique resources and scientific or educational project work.

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 other groups to help reverse the decline of this species.

Paul Whitefield, natural resource specialist, describes the history and restoration of Heiser Spring at Wupatki National Monument. Recorded in August 2010 and August 2011.