Treesearch

Considerable documentary evidence is available about the historic vegetation of the Southern High Plains (SHP). Accounts spanning about 350 years (from the earliest European explorers in the 1540s to scientists working in the later 19th and early 20th centuries), however, lead to vague and sometimes contradictory conclusions about the nature of this vegetation. The earliest documents describe the SHP as vast grassland. The fact that native soils were Paleustolls supports this description. The earliest accounts also suggest considerable vegetation diversity in certain topographic settings...

This study investigated the abundance and frequency of occurrence of all shrub species present in the standing vegetation at four sites, including a 5-year exclosure (protected grassland) and three adjacent unprotected grazing sites that had been subjected to different levels of degradation (light, moderate and severe), in xeric sandy grassland of Inner Mongolia for three growing seasons. Shrub species abundance, richness, and diversity in the exclosure were compared with three unprotected sites to determine the efficacy of exclosure on shrub biodiversity conservation. Using the data set,...

Fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens) is a widely distributed shrub of semiarid western North America. We studied viability and germinability of fourwing saltbush seeds over 10 years for collections from 23 Intermountain populations. Fruit fill averaged 53 percent, and 96 percent of filled fruits contained viable seeds even after 6 years of laboratory storage. Seed collections were generally dormant to some degree at harvest and lost dormancy via two processes, moist chilling and after-ripening in dry storage. Prolonged chilling (24 wks) substituted for dry after-ripening, resulted in...

The land use history of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) extends back over thousands of years. Few known archaeological properties in the Valles Caldera date to the Paleoindian period (10000/9500–5500 B.C.). These finds include the recent discovery, during ongoing archaeological studies (Dr. Bob Parmeter, personal communication, VCNP, Los Alamos, 2005), of several spear points that associate with soils dated at 11,000 years before present. In addition, there is wide distribution of Jémez obsidian across the northern Southwest from archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistoce...

This chapter examines the scope and structure of current archaeological interpretations of the pre-Columbian Native American occupation and use of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP). The discussion provides useful cultural-historical background for the presentation and evaluation of the structure and organization of Native American land use history, as it is known through documentary sources, in subsequent chapters of this volume. It demonstrates that aboriginal communities have sustained important relationships with the Valles Caldera over millennia even though none ever establish...

This chapter outlines the history and culture of the lands in the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) from the mid-sixteenth-century Spanish entradas (expeditions) into New Mexico to the present. The discussion draws from documentary sources listed in the accompanying annotated bibliography.

The Baca Location No. 1 (Baca Location) is unique among New Mexico land grants in having two histories that begin in separate locations. It is the only grant whose patent does not cover any part of the lands originally granted. It is the only grant whose patented lands are in three different states.

Native American populations have cut wood for shelters and fuel, gathered native plants, hunted game animals, and collected various other resources, such as obsidian for making chipped-stone tools, clay for crafting pottery vessels, and stone slabs for producing piki (corn meal paper bread) griddles, in the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) for countless centuries (chapter 2). Archaeological evidence recounted in chapter 2 documents that Pueblo groups from the upper Río Jémez Valley farmed the Banco Bonito within the VCNP during pre-Columbian times. Although the available evidence is...

The Regional Haze rule addresses visibility impairment in 156 Federal Class I areas. The goal of the rule is to remove all anthropogenic air pollution from the National Parks and Wilderness areas. Determining natural visibility conditions is an interesting and complicated problem. There is a large archive of pre- and early-settlement narratives, landscape paintings, and photographs that could be used as part of a weight-of-evidence demonstration in regional haze State implementation plans (SIPs), especially for Western States. With an understanding of inherent limits, these materials could...

Herbaceous layer vegetation responses to prescribed fire and fire surrogate treatments (thinning and understory removal) were examined. Results from 3 to 4 years following treatment are presented for the Ohio Hills Country and the Southern Appalachian Mountain sites of the National Fire and Fire Surrogate Study. At the Ohio Hills site, changes in forest structure were observed for all treatments, but areas treated with fire showed the greatest increase in herbaceous cover and species richness. These results indicate that fire effects are unique disturbances that are not mimicked by...