Parks Stewardship Forum

In this "Letter from Woodstock," our columnist considers new ideas for welcoming a more diverse group of visitors to Yosemite National Park and the Presidio, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Human-caused climate change has reduced snowfall and melted snowpack, glaciers, and sea ice around the world. Eliminating coal, oil, and other fossil fuels and replacing them with solar, wind, and other renewable energy is essential to halt climate change.

A brief report on the latest annual A. Starker Leopold Lecture, with a link to video of the lecture.  The speakers were Jerry Emory and Alison Forrestel.

The fossil record preserved throughout the parks, monuments, and other areas administered by the National Park Service spans at least 1.4 billion years and reveals rich and diverse paleontological resources available for scientific research and public education. Fossils documented in at least 286 different NPS areas represent important and iconic components of the history of North American paleontology. Our knowledge of the fossil record within the national parks continuously expands based on new paleontological discoveries every year. Most of the new fossil discoveries are associated with four primary management activities undertaken by the NPS Paleontology Program, parks, partners, and cooperating scientists: paleontological resource inventories, monitoring, research, and assessment of fossils curated in museum collections. Paleontological resource inventories focus on the scope, significance, distribution (both temporal and geospatial), and resource management issues associated with park fossils. Paleontological resource monitoring consists of the assessment of the stability and condition of irreplaceable fossils that are present within the parks’ geologic strata and subject to natural processes or anthropogenic activities. Paleontological resource research is typically an academic undertaking to gather new data, fossil specimens, and associated geological or paleoecological information to expand our understanding of these resources in parks. Finally, under the curatorial component, as of 2023 more than 650,000 fossil specimens are being curated in museum collections within the parks themselves or in outside repositories, and are available for future scientific research and use in exhibits or public education. The harmonious combination of inventory, monitoring, research, and use of museum collections has resulted in many new and important paleontological discoveries associated with park fossils. This article, and the others presented in this special issue of Parks Stewardship Forum dedicated to NPS paleontology, highlight some of these new paleontological discoveries from national parks associated with these four management activities.

Globally, caves provide important refugia for bats. The Grand Canyon, more than 400 km (250 mi) long, consists of steep-sided, rocky formations with hundreds to thousands of natural caves. Two of these, Double Bopper and Leandras Caves, are remarkable because of the presence of desiccated bat carcasses, ranging in condition from skeletal to well-preserved animals identifiable to species. Both caves are complex but differ in length and structure. Double Bopper Cave, >60 km (37 mi) long, is variable with narrow passages. Leandras Cave, 24 km (15 mi) long, has wide, open passages. We surveyed both caves, collecting information for 482 specimens. We initially hypothesized that a single catastrophic event caused the deaths of many individuals or that bats died of various causes over a long period. We expected bat communities to differ between caves, since different cave structures would favor different species based on flight maneuverability. Radiocarbon dating of 67 samples found ages ranged from modern to >45,800 cal BP, spanning the Last Glacial Maximum. The dominant bat species in each cave differed, with Townsend’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii), a cave obligate, dominant in Double Bopper Cave and silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) dominant in Leandras Cave. Bats continue to use these caves today, as evidenced by the presence of fresh guano. The remarkable evidence of long-term continuous use of these caves by bats illustrates the importance of protection and conservation to provide habitat for them. The caves also provide an unprecedented time machine to study bat communities from the past, understand long-term patterns of habitat use, and prepare for climate change.

A focused search for ancient Mississippian Subperiod marine vertebrates during a paleontological resource inventory of Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, has yielded a wealth of new fossil data, previously unrecognized at this park. To date, we have identified marine vertebrate fossils from four primary horizons at the park, two of which are the first records of marine vertebrate fossils occurring in those horizons. Mammoth Cave sites have produced more than 70 species of ancient fish, about 90% representing cartilaginous fishes (sharks and kin), including several new species. The paleontological resource inventory of Mammoth Cave demonstrates that this park is an important resource for providing data on how fish assemblages changed during the formation of the super-continent Pangea. The inventory data also can help correct antiquated information on fossil sharks found in the region (in some cases not updated since their publication in the late 19^th century).

In recent years the discovery of paleontological and archaeological resources exposed because of natural disasters and rapid erosion—mostly linked to climate change—has occurred at a phenomenal rate. Each year wildfires, floods, landsides, retreating glaciers, snow melt, soil erosion, and receding lakes and reservoirs are uncovering valuable resources. Unfortunately, these same forces often lead to the loss of these resources before they can be preserved or documented. At White Sands National Park, as moisture within the soil is being reduced by persistent droughts and rising temperatures, 23,000-year-old fossil prints of people and Ice Age megafauna are being exposed—and then rapidly lost to soil erosion. Consequently, there is an urgent need to document the fossil prints before the record is lost. This is a concern not only for White Sands, but also for dry lake beds throughout the Southwest and around the world where fossil prints may not have yet been discovered but are rapidly being lost. At White Sands, we are working with an impressive team of experts to develop techniques to rapidly document these resources. The fossil resources at White Sands provides an important analogue for understanding other pluvial systems throughout the world.

Paleontological monitoring at Badlands National Park is extremely complex. The monitoring program has steadily evolved from its formalization in 1994 with the hiring of the first park paleontologist. Changing regulations, increases in protections for paleontological resources, positive interdivisional communication, sympathetic leadership, and the hiring of a full-time monitor have allowed staff to move from being purely reactive to taking an active role in planning park projects. This entails commenting on compliance through the National Park Service’s Planning, Environment & Public Comment portal, conducting pre-construction surveys, attending pre-construction meetings, providing resource training for construction personnel, consulting with the Federal Highway Administration as subject-matter experts, and acting as the contracting officer’s representative on select projects. The monitoring program strives to hire qualified personnel according to best practice guidelines and provides additional training in documentation, fossil identification, field methods, and effective communication prior to allowing monitors to be onsite. The monitoring program works to add value to projects such as GIS database management for park utilities, assisting with project planning, and acting as additional spotters for issues on the ground during construction. Additionally, monitors are frequently tasked with assisting in law enforcement cases and any other situation in which their skill sets can be brought to bear. The future of paleontological monitoring at Badlands National Park will continue to see the integration of technology, expertise, and communication to ensure that all projects are completed successfully, and resources are handled with the care and respect the public expects of the National Park Service.

Paleontological site monitoring in National Park Service units can deviate from the recommended cyclical protocol because of unique challenges each unit may face. These challenges include staffing limitations or turnover, difficulty accessing remote sites, and high work volume. Insufficient monitoring of fossil sites might result in the loss of knowledge or data due to degradation or loss of resources. New monitoring protocols were tested at the Copper Canyon ichnofossil locality in Death Valley National Park (DEVA) to address the highlighted management challenges. The monitoring protocol presented here was designed to be streamlined and simple, to be utilized by paleontologists and non-paleontologists alike, and to overcome challenges, thereby, improving undermanaged sites. The monitoring protocol included baseline evaluation and imaging of the 78 track localities within Copper Canyon. Each site was assigned a sensitivity status; identifying its recommended monitoring cyclicity of high, moderate, or low. It was determined that monitors could take as few as two field trips to Copper Canyon per year and monitor between five to ten sites each trip. This could be accomplished by DEVA’s resources management, interpretation, or law enforcement staff, or a volunteer. Monitors use a portable device, pre-loaded with site-specific paleontological data, to interactively record changes at a site and complete a short seven question form with their observations. Data are stored on the device and later transferred to a central paleontological database. Through this protocol, DEVA can utilize a community-based approach to better manage fossil resources, one which could be replicated by other National Park Service units that grapple with similar monitoring challenges.

George Washington Birthplace National Monument (GEWA) is a National Park Service (NPS) unit located in the Northern Neck of Virginia, situated on low bluffs overlooking the Potomac River. This small park unit, focused primarily on cultural and historical resources, may seem at first glance to be an unlikely candidate for notable paleontological resources. However, the bluffs are composed in large part of the fossiliferous early–middle Miocene-age Calvert Formation, and these bluffs and the adjacent shoreline have long been known by locals and rockhounds as places to find fossil shark teeth and other fossils. Following initial contact in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the NPS Paleontology Program has worked closely with GEWA since 2014 on the dual aims of stemming illegal fossil collecting and monitoring non-renewable paleontological resources in the face of rising river levels, increasing storms, and other effects of climate change. The working relationship is a case study for managing fossil resources facing similar challenges. Fossil theft has declined since the project began, as measured by decreasing bluff vandalism left by fossil removal. The benefits of establishing and maintaining a close relationship with park staff are superbly illustrated by the March 2020 recovery of two specimens of Miocene dolphins at imminent risk of loss to wave erosion or unauthorized collection. Plans are in progress to expand this collaborative work with the help of regional institutions.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (THRO) in western North Dakota that comprises badlands that surround the Little Missouri River in three separate units. Established initially as a national memorial park in 1947 and redesignated as a national park with its current boundaries in 1978, THRO was founded for its connection to its namesake, the United States president, and continues to memorialize Roosevelt’s ideals of stewardship with its management of its diverse cultural and natural resources. The badlands in the park expose the highly fossiliferous Paleocene-age Bullion Creek and Sentinel Butte Formations that have been investigated extensively outside of the park’s boundaries but not as much within them. Following a survey between 1994 and 1996 and later paleontological discoveries in the park, a Paleontological Resource Inventory was conducted during 2020 and 2021 to gauge these resources within THRO and determine best management and protection practices. This inventory was put to the test in monitoring for fossil resources preceding two road construction projects in the park: on the South Loop Road in 2021 and the Buck Hill Road in 2023. The inventory gave information as to what paleontological resources were to be encountered during construction, including known fossil occurrences and localities within and surrounding the project area. Results of monitoring included the discovery of new paleontological material, including bird material and well-preserved angiosperm fossils around the South Loop Road, and a potentially high-yield vertebrate site including choristodere (an extinct aquatic reptile), bowfin, and turtle material near Buck Hill Road. These instances demonstrate the importance of paleontological resource inventories as a foundation for resource monitoring preceding construction projects.

The first discovery of any dinosaur remains in a US National Park Service unit in Alaska occurred in 2001 in Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve. The record consisted of the track of a pes impression, or track made by the foot of a hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) and an associated manus impression, or track made by a hand. Subsequent work has shown the original track discovery was not unique, and that the coastal exposures of the Cretaceous Chignik Formation in Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve contain a remarkable number of tracks. Further, because of the limited faulting, the several hundred meters of section found along this coastal set of exposures provide a remarkably complete look at an ancient high-latitude dinosaurian ecosystem and are of outstanding universal value.

Eggs are one of the least understood life stages of insects, and are poorly represented in the fossil record. Using microtomography, we studied an enigmatic fossil egg clutch of a presumed entomological affinity from the Oligocene Turtle Cove Member, John Day Formation, from the National Park Service-administered lands of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon. A highly organized egg mass comprising a large clutch size of approximately 50 slightly curved ellipsoidal eggs arranged radially in several planes is preserved, enclosed in a disc-shaped layer of cemented and compacted soil particles. Based on the morphology of the overall structure and the eggs, we conclude that the specimen represents a fossilized underground ootheca of the grasshoppers and locusts (Orthoptera: Caelifera), also known as an egg pod. This likely represents the oldest and the first unambiguous fossil evidence of a grasshopper egg pod. We describe Subterroothecichnus radialis igen. et isp. nov. and Curvellipsoentomoolithus laddi oogen. et oosp. nov., representing the egg pod and the eggs, respectively. We advocate for adopting ootaxonomy in studying fossil eggs of entomological affinities, as widely practiced with fossil amniotic eggs. An additional 26 individual and clustered C. laddi collected throughout the A–H subunits of the Turtle Cove Member suggest the stable presence of grasshoppers in the Turtle Cove fauna, and we discuss the paleoecological implications. Oothecae have convergently evolved several times in several insect groups; this ovipositional strategy likely contributed to the fossilization of this lesser-known ontogenetic stage, enriching our understanding of past insect life.

Among the wonders of Yellowstone National Park are the spectacular fossil forests of Amethyst Mountain and Specimen Ridge in the northeastern section of the park and the Gallatin Fossil Forests in the northwestern section. In 1898, John Muir, who was instrumental in establishing the US National Park System, wrote: “Yonder is Amethyst Mountain … beneath the living trees the edges of petrified forests are exposed to view ... standing on ledges tier above tier where they grew, solemnly silent in rigid crystalline beauty after swaying in the wind thousands of centuries ago, opening marvelous views back into the years and climates and life of the past time.” Muir’s visit to Amethyst Mountain was no doubt prompted by the early descriptions and diagrams showing multiple layers of fossil forests there (Figure 1A) (Holmes 1878, 1879). Specimen Ridge and the Gallatin Fossil Forests also have successive tiers of fossil forests. Erling Dorf’s 1964 Scientific American article “The Petrified Forests of Yellowstone Park” includes an illustration of Specimen Ridge with more than 20 layers of fossil forests within a vertical section of some 2,000 feet of volcanics. It is unclear how many different volcanic eruptions were involved in creating these massive accumulations of petrified stumps and logs and the time span represented, as well as how long-lived were the individual forests. The classic paper on the geology of the region is by Smedes and Prostka (1972), who concluded that the Lamar River Formation in which Amethyst Mountain and Specimen Ridge occur and the Sepulcher Formation in which the Gallatin Fossil Forests occur are comparable in age, approximately 50 million years old.

Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO) was established to preserve fossils from the Triassic Period. After long relying solely on external partners, an internal program was established consisting of permanent staff and appropriate facilities to manage these extensive resources, primarily through active collection and curation. Goals based on National Park Service (NPS) policies allow managers to guide internal research priorities and those of external partners, more effectively reducing repetitive studies and increasing collaborations. Student interns play a crucial part of this effort, and many have gone on to establish or augment paleontology programs at other institutions and federal agencies, developing new partnerships with the NPS. PEFO permanent staff grew as park and regional management recognized the utility of the program. PEFO staff collaboratively develop new collecting and laboratory processing techniques that preserve high quality data, including a public laboratory where visitors watch the conservation of fossil resources in real time, bettering public understanding while simultaneously furthering research goals. This program has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications over the last 20 years, highlighting Petrified Forest as one of the best places on Earth to learn about and understand the Triassic Period, and providing an example for other NPS units on how to best protect and promote fossil resources.

Badlands National Park has been implementing an experimental “open door” concept to their fossil preparation lab, where visitors are allowed into the workspace to experience paleontological work behind the scenes. The combined effort of Resource Education and Resource Management divisions have addressed safety and security issues to optimize the maximum benefits towards resource stewardship as well as public education and enjoyment. These efforts have manifested through various interpretive opportunities combined with strategies towards visitor inclusion into the scientific realm, through encouraging citizen science. The efforts supporting the “open door” lab concept has provided significant, measurable impacts towards inspiring public engagement and stewardship. Since the lab’s opening, there has been a 400% increase in Visitor Site Reports, the parks fossil reporting citizen science program. The past decade of having an “open door” lab has led to the revelation that if the park ever changed their lab setting to the classic “fish-bowl” lab, seen in several museums, the significant gains that have been made would be lost. Paleontology prep labs that facilitate wider public engagement can be a major boon towards resource management strategies for paleontological resources.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (FLFO) was established to protect the rare abundance and diversity of fossil resources preserved in the Florissant Formation. The majority of fossils are plants and insects preserved in laminated shale, which is prone to conservation issues. These issues result from the inherent thinness of individual laminae (≥0.1 mm) and high clay content, and, during collection, sharp fluctuations in relative humidity (RH) and moisture content. The purpose of this paper is to describe historical and current stabilization methods, and report on two current research efforts at separate institutions to mediate these issues using controlled drying techniques and selection of appropriate adhesives and consolidants following best practices in fossil preparation. Response of shale units to humidity is being investigated at the Western Archeological and Conservation Center facility in Tucson, Arizona, along with the viability of consolidation with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). This method controls humidity and moisture during drying procedures in order to prevent cracking, flaking, and delamination of the shale matrix for both untreated and treated samples. Results indicate that consolidation with TEOS can prevent damage from occurring during the drying process if the samples are maintained in a hydrated state while the TEOS forms a sol-gel. Without treatment, a slow and moderate drying cycle longer than 14 days without acute drops in (RH) is necessary to prevent damage. To test appropriate adhesives and consolidants that assist in preventing and repairing damage to fossil specimens, analysis is being performed at the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The properties of two ethyl-cyanoacrylates, a medical-grade butyl-octyl cyanoacrylate, and Butvars B-98 and B-76 in 95% ethanol were compared against each other after treated paper shalesamples were stressed under accelerated aging conditions in a weatherometer and analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Results indicate that the paper shale samples treated with a consolidant using the two Butvar resins remain the most stable over time under extreme conditions. Updated methods of drying shale after extraction and using appropriate adhesives and consolidants will ensure conservation of the paleontological specimens at FLFO for ongoing research and public understanding into the future.

Dinosaur National Monument was established in 1915 to protect and preserve the globally significant paleontological resources of the Carnegie Dinosaur Quarry. The park was expanded in 1938 and now protects 210,844.02 acres in northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado. Extensive inventory, monitoring, excavation, and research work has taken place in the monument, mostly focusing on the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation over the past 113 years since the Carnegie Quarry’s discovery in 1909. This work has helped to increase not only our knowledge of the dinosaur fauna, but also of the less well-known reptiles, amphibians, mammals, invertebrates, and plant communities that lived alongside these Jurassic giants. To protect and preserve these notable fossil discoveries, Dinosaur National Monument has explored several approaches. Public tours of the Carnegie Quarry have taken place since its discovery in 1909. In the early 1950s the monument erected a temporary building over a portion of the remaining Carnegie Quarry to protect and display in situ fossils, with the more extensive permanent construction of the Quarry Visitor Center completed in 1958, including a fossil preparation laboratory and museum collections space. Over time this structure was affected by the constant movement of the bedrock, requiring its overhaul in the early 2000s, resulting in today’s Quarry Exhibit Hall. The park’s museum collections were recently relocated to a facility at the Utah Field House Museum of Natural History State Park, where new facilities and a preparation laboratory are available to accommodate these extensive fossil collections. Other in situ fossil resources in the park have been made accessible along the Fossil Discovery Trail, or through tours to active quarries. Most of the fossil resources in the park are not suited for in situ display and require traditional excavation and curation practices.

Like many National Park Service sites, Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument in Nevada has associated off-site legacy paleontological collections in museum repositories across North America. These legacy paleontological collections, which were created during past expeditions, are at risk of becoming forgotten or inaccessible, yet they hold the potential to revisit old questions and old sites utilizing new techniques, methods, and ideas. The authors present a case study that outlines a suggested framework to reconcile problematic or underutilized legacy paleontological collections based on the 2020–2023 inventory of the Southwest Museum Expedition Tule Springs Collection curated at the Autry Museum of the American West. The authors also explore the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary approach to paleontological resource management. Digitization of associated historic archives and photographs can help assign updated geologic context to unprovenienced fossils, as well as locate historic paleontological sites for conservation and study. Legacy paleontological collections are also artifacts of the time of collection; the cultural context of fossil collections can be just as important as their geologic context. Although new data collection is beneficial for scientific inquiry and science-based natural resource management strategies, the importance of well-understood and accessible legacy paleontological collections for these efforts cannot be overstated. Revisiting these collections can facilitate scientific discovery by providing more accurate and comprehensive data to park staff and researchers. Paleontological and museum management programs and the scientific community will benefit from bridging the past and the present through an interdisciplinary approach.

The history associated with the discovery, research, preservation, protection, and loss of the fossil cycadeoid locality near Minnekahta in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota—which for 35 years was designated as Fossil Cycad National Monument—has gained considerable public attention. Several publications have attempted to capture portions of this history through the assimilation of information from archives, reports, correspondence, photographs, and other records associated with the monument. Previously unknown records continue to emerge, helping to expand and reshape the understanding of the monument’s unfortunate history, and also raising new questions. Some of the newly uncovered information is presented here. Additionally, several questions are identified that hopefully might be advanced through communication with individuals who are able to share additional information or historical records to fill in some of the gaps related to the history of Fossil Cycad National Monument.

Rangers safeguard the balance between humans and nature by protecting and managing biodiversity and natural resources. The challenging working conditions that rangers face make them vulnerable to wildlife attacks and exposure to zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Despite all of these work-related challenges and threats to their health, a vast majority of rangers lack access to adequate medical treatment facilities. This research has used data from the one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys of rangers across multiple countries, collected as part of the Global Ranger Perception Survey, to examine the relationship between the precarious working conditions of rangers and their health outcomes. By comparing data from the 2020 World Malaria Report, our study highlights the severe malaria burden carried by rangers around the world. Malaria prevalence in rangers working in Central Africa, East Africa, and South America was estimated to be four times higher than in the general population. The results of this study are valuable because they show that rangers are a vulnerable, high-risk population of professionals and their working conditions are highly associated with their respective health outcomes. The research also makes it imperative that improving working conditions is essential for maintaining a professional ranger workforce that protects the planet’s natural areas and biodiversity.

Every year approximately 300 million Americans visit at least one of the over 420 units of the US National Park System. At many parks, visitors pass through an entrance gate where a ranger provides a map and newspaper for wayfinding and essential information, while at many others a map and newspaper are freely available at visitor centers and other locations. Surveys involving 19 units of the National Park System that are designated as “national parks” suggest that approximately 37% of their visitors use the newspapers provided to them, meaning that the newspapers reach more than 30 million visitors each year in these parks alone. We propose that park newspapers are well-placed but underappreciated assets for park managers to set an agenda communicating climate change to hard-to-reach audiences. Therefore, we conducted a series of analyses, focused on 17 parks that published newspapers on a near-annual basis from 2005–2022, to examine climate change coverage in them. We found that after the National Park Service (NPS) established its Climate Change Response Program in 2010, nearly 50% of newspapers covered climate change, but from 2017–2022 that proportion plummeted to 35%. We suggest that this decline—along with similar effects evinced in internal newsletters and NPS Climate Change Tweets—rendered a missing audience that could have been persuaded by climate communication but was never reached. We estimate this missing audience at more than 470,000 visitors if 2017–2022 merely met the standard of climate change coverage set in the six years prior. Finally, we conclude by encouraging NPS to include climate change coverage in their new mobile app—otherwise they risk missing another substantial audience—and we provide examples of what that could look like.

This visual essay in "The Photographer's Frame" draws on the example of highway accident triage to apply principles of "Protect—Assess—Act" to the climate change crisis as a way people can build hope over hopelessness.

A poem in the "Verse in Place" section of Parks Stewardship Forum.