A park scientist monitors vegetation in a grassy valley.
NPS/L. Ray
Valles Caldera’s unusual setting—high elevation, caldera topography, unfragmented habitats, and key hydrologic role at the top of the watershed—serves as an important outdoor, landscape-scale laboratory and classroom for the study of natural processes and their intersection with prehistoric, historic, and contemporary human land use. The continuation of the preserve’s robust science and education programs provides opportunities for direct experiential learning for visitors, citizen-science projects, enhanced science interpretation, and contributions to the state of human knowledge, understanding, and discovery.
Valles Caldera National Preserve partners with numerous agencies, universities, and research organizations in a collaborative science consortium called the Jemez Mountains Research Learning Center (JMRLC). A website for the JMRLC is currently in the works. In the meantime, check out the articles below about ongoing science and research at Valles Caldera.
Valles Caldera is home to one of the rarest and most endangered species in the world: the Jemez Mountains salamander. Whereas hundreds of these salamanders used to be found in the Jemez Mountains during each season, only 5 were found by scientific survey crews in 2023.
Learn more about this sensitive and secretive species in this science spotlight video.
Morning e-bike ride to Obsidian Valley. I had forgotten how thrilling it is to ride a bike in the mountains. Nothing compares with the pure joy of coasting through patches of sun and shade, the scents of ponderosas, warm dust, and mountain sage in the air.
What you have to understand is that we’re sitting in the middle of a volcano. Not an active one, mind you; we won’t be fleeing ash clouds and lava flow without warning. But not an extinct one, either. So don’t get too complacent. This volcano is dormant. It’s only sleeping. Activity is still very much possible.
Coyotes and American badgers sometimes hunt prairie dogs or ground squirrels together using their complementary hunting skills – the badger can dig below ground and the coyote can chase prey aboveground. Although this relationship is described by Indigenous people and early European settlers dating back to at least the 19th century, little research has been done to understand the circumstances in which these two carnivore species work together...until now.
Locations:Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve
Historically, Mexican spotted owls, a federally threatened species, were known to inhabit and breed within the steep-walled canyons of Bandelier National Monument. In 2011, the Las Conchas wildfire burned through 58% of the Mexican spotted owl's critical habitat within the park, of which 23% burned at high and moderate intensities. Mexican spotted owl surveys have become essential for proper management of their remaining habitat.
Valles Caldera National Preserve is an important fishery and watershed protection area. Fish population surveys help scientists monitor the recovery of streams and wetlands in the Jemez Mountains after 150 years of commercial grazing, timber harvesting, mining, and road construction.
Locations:Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve
The Large Mammal Monitoring Project is a collaborative effort to monitor the responses of mule deer, elk, black bear, and mountain lion to ecosystem disturbances like wildfires in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico.
Since the Las Conchas Fire in 2011, scientists have monitored burned areas to evaluate post-fire vegetation change in order to find out the rate of conversion from forest to montane meadow and the rate of mixed-conifer and ponderosa pine forest regeneration.
Locations:Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve
The Jemez Mountains area is a rich cultural landscape comprised of thousands of archeological sites and their related artifacts, rock art, trails, habitations, and countless other features that are vulnerable to wildland fire.
Understanding the effects of high fuel loads and the resultant high heat exposure to archeological resources during fire is one necessary step towards developing a range of climate change responses for land managers to implement on the ground.
At Valles Caldera, more than 2,700 dendroglyphs have been recorded by archeologists and volunteers since the 1970s. Based on census records, most of these glyphs were carved by Hispanic and Native American sheepherders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By documenting dendroglyphs as a unique historic record, we can become better acquainted with the history of this landscape and its visitors.
The biggest trees at Valles Caldera National Preserve are of great scientific and cultural significance, containing hundreds of years’ worth of environmental history. Volunteers help the National Park Service find these trees in far-flung corners of the park.
