Environment Changes
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The high, dry, tableland of Petrified Forest National Park was once a vast floodplain. 225 million years ago, during the Triassic period, large, pine-like trees fell and were washed by swollen streams into this plain where the trees were covered with silt, mud, and volcanic ash. This blanket of deposits cut off oxygen and slowed the decay of the logs. Gradually, silica-bearing ground waters seeped through the logs, and bit-by-bit, encased the original wood tissues with silica deposits. As the process continued, the silica crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.
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The floodplain eventually sank, was flooded, and covered with freshwater sediments. Later, the area was lifted far above sea level. This uplift created stresses that cracked the giant logs hidden underneath. In recent geologic times, wind and water wore away the accumulated layers of hardened sediments. Today, many petrified logs, as well as fossilized dinosaurs, reptiles, fish, and plants, remain exposed on the land’s surface. Wind and water continue to remove sediments, and erosion continues to uncover other remaining logs and fossils still buried below the surface. In some places up to 300 feet of fossil-bearing material remains.
COnservation Efforts
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Petrified Forest is best known for its ancient trees that have crystallized over 225 million years into rainbow colors. The park also features fossils from huge 18-foot crocodile-like creatures known as Phytosaurs, as well as remnants from 13,000 years of human history, including the remains of villages, tools, and grinding stones. A 28-mile road runs through the park, offering a number of short hiking trails into the diverse landscape of wild grasslands and Painted Desert vistas and colorful badlands. In 2011 we helped the National Park Service add 26,000 acres to the park. The lands were previously privately owned and managed as ranchland by the Hatch Family Partnership. These lands now connect areas already managed by the state of Arizona and the National Park Service.
Working with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), we purchased 4,200 acres in January 2013. The National Park Service then utilized the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)—America’s premier conservation program—to acquire the property at the end of the year. Known as the McCauley Ranch, the property lies east of the historic remains of Puerco Pueblo and will connect lands already protected within PFNP. During the summer of 2013, researchers unearthed a well preserved, two-foot- long phytosaur skull, a distant ancestor of the modern crocodile, on the McCauley Ranch property. They also uncovered a new find for Petrified Forest National Park, a Doswellia, which is a close relative to the phytosaur. A rich layer of fossil material was identified below the bones that could be the bottom of an ancient pond. Continued excavation will help to determine the pond’s ecosystem and identify the kinds of prehistoric fish, amphibians, reptiles and plants that once lived there.
Working with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), we purchased 4,200 acres in January 2013. The National Park Service then utilized the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)—America’s premier conservation program—to acquire the property at the end of the year. Known as the McCauley Ranch, the property lies east of the historic remains of Puerco Pueblo and will connect lands already protected within PFNP. During the summer of 2013, researchers unearthed a well preserved, two-foot- long phytosaur skull, a distant ancestor of the modern crocodile, on the McCauley Ranch property. They also uncovered a new find for Petrified Forest National Park, a Doswellia, which is a close relative to the phytosaur. A rich layer of fossil material was identified below the bones that could be the bottom of an ancient pond. Continued excavation will help to determine the pond’s ecosystem and identify the kinds of prehistoric fish, amphibians, reptiles and plants that once lived there.