Bandelier National Monument: Natural Resource Condition Assessment

National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Bandelier National Monument Natural Resource Condition Assessment Natural Resource Report NPS/BAND/NRR—2015/1000 ON THIS PAGE View of Upper Alamo Canyon, 2009 Photography by: National Park Service ON THE COVER View across Burnt Mesa, Bandelier National Monument Photography by: Dale Coker Bandelier National Monument Natural Resource Condition Assessment Natural Resource Report NPS/BAND/NRR—2015/1000 Editors Brian Jacobs1 Barbara Judy1 Stephen Fettig1 Kay Beeley1 Collin Haffey2 Catherin Schwemm3 Jean Palumbo4 Lisa Thomas4 1Bandelier National Monument 15 Entrance Road Los Alamos, NM 87544 2 Jemez Mountain Field Station, USGS at Bandelier National Monument 15 Entrance Road Los Alamos, NM 87544 3Institute for Wildlife Studies P.O. Box 1104 Arcata, CA 955184 4Southern Colorado Plateau Network National Park Service USGS Flagstaff Science Center 2255N. Gemini Drive Flagstaff, AZ 86001 August 2015 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Fort Collins, Colorado The National Park Service, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science offi ce in Fort Collins, Colorado, publishes a range of reports that address natural resource topics. These reports are of interest and applicability to a broad audience in the National Park Service and oth- ers in natural resource management, including scientists, conservation and environmental constituencies, and the public. The Natural Resource Report Series is used to disseminate comprehensive information and analysis about natural resources and related topics concerning lands managed by the National Park Service. The series supports the advancement of science, informed decision- making, and the achievement of the National Park Service mission. The series also provides a forum for presenting more lengthy results that may not be accepted by publications with page limitations. All manuscripts in the series receive the appropriate level of peer review to ensure that the information is scientifi cally credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the in- tended audience, and designed and published in a professional manner. This report received informal peer review by subject-matter experts who were not directly involved in the collection, analysis, or reporting of the data. Views, statements, fi ndings, conclusions, recommendations, and data in this report do not necessarily refl ect views and policies of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the U.S. Government. This report is available from the Bandelier National Monument website (http://www.nps. gov/band/index.htm), and the Natural Resource Publications Management Web site (http:// www.nature.nps.gov/publications/nrpm/) on the Internet. To receive this report in a format optimized for screen readers, please email [email protected]. Please cite this publication as: Jacobs, B., B. Judy, S. Fettig, K. Beeley, C. Haff ey, C. Schwemm, J. Palumbo, and L. Thomas. 2015. Bandelier National Monument Natural Resource Condition Assessment, Natural Resource Report NPS/BAND/NRR—2015/1000. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. NPS 315/129413, August 2015 ii Contents Figures . v Tables . .vii Appendices . ��viii Executive Summary . �� ix Contributors . xi Chapter 1: NRCA Background Information . 1 Chapter 2: Park Resource Setting/Resource Stewardship Context . .. 3 2.1 Introduction . 3 2.2 Physical resources and processes . 6 2.3 Significant biological resources . 12 2.4 Relevant regional or landscape scale natural resource information . 17 2.5 Threats/stressors to important park resources . ��18 2.6 Resource stewardship . 18 2.7 Literature cited . 25 Chapter 3: Study Approach . .. 29 3.1 Preliminary scoping . 29 3.2 Study design . 31 3.3. Literature cited . ��34 Chapter 4: Natural Resource Conditions . .. 35 4.01 Fire History and Ecology . ��36 4.03 Montane Grasslands . 56 4.04 Mixed Conifer / Aspen Forest . 60 4.04-1 Aspen . ��64 4.05 Ponderosa Pine Forest and Woodland . ��73 4.06 Piñon-Juniper Woodland . 83 4.06-1 Erosion in Piñon-Juniper Woodlands . 93 4.07 Rare Plant Species . 98 4.08 Nonnative Plants . .106 4.09 Rio Grande Corridor and Associated Riparian Vegetation . .110 4.10 Rito de los Frijoles and Capulin Creek and Associated Riparian Vegetation . .114 4.11 Water Quality and Aquatic Macroinvertebrates . .122 4.12 Native Fish . .136 Contents iii Contents (continued) 4.13 Landbirds . .140 4.14 Mexican Spotted Owl . ��149 4.15 Jemez Mountain Salamander . .152 4.16 Mountain Lion . .156 4.18 American Pika . ��163 4.19 River Otters . .169 4.20 Lynx . ��172 4.21 Bighorn Sheep . .173 4.22 Natural Sounds . .175 4.23 Air Quality . .179 Chapter 5: Toward Ecosystem Integrity in a Warmer Drier Future: Don’t Panic! . ��187 5.1 State change . .187 5.2 Future state . .188 5.3 State of management . .188 5.4 Opportunities for success . ��189 5.5 Addressing uncertainty . ��191 5.6 Conclusions . .193 5.7 Literature cited . .194 iv Bandelier National Monument Natural Resource Condition Assessment Figures Figure 2-1. Bandelier National Monument is located on the Pajarito Plateau in north central New Mexico. �� 4 Figure 2-2. Map of public and private lands surrounding Bandelier National Monument. 5 Figure 2-3. Water year precipitation for the period 1929–2014 from the Firetower weather station. �� 7 Figure 2-4. Fires greater than 10 acres within and adjacent to Bandelier National Monument for the period 1909–2011. �� 8 Figure 2-5. Map showing the canyons and drainages of Bandelier National Monu- ment and adjacent lands, with the major canyons and perennial streams labeled. 11 Figure 2-6. Vegetation map showing dominant vegetation types of Bandelier Na- tional Monument as of spring 2011, before the Las Conchas Fire burned approxi- mately 60% of the park (Muldavin et al. 2011). 13 Figure 4-1a. Number of ignitions per month, by type, in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, from 1909–2012. 37 Figure 4-1b. Cumulative acres burned per month, by type of ignition, in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, from 1909–2012. 37 Figure 4-2a. Fires that occurred in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, by decade, from the 1900s to the 1960s. �� 39 Figure 4-2b. Fires that occurred in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, by decade, from the 1970s to the 2010s. 39 Figure 4-3. Linked drivers of vegetation change in Bandelier National Monument and the southwestern U.S. 47 Figure 4-4. Cumulative footprint of medium and high severity wildfires in the distributions of the mixed conifer-aspen forest zone (blue green), ponderosa pine forest zone (drab green), and piñon-juniper woodland zone (orange), since 1977. 49 Figure 4-5. Change in spatial distribution of major vegetation map units from 1981–2004. a.1981, modified from Allen (1989). b. 2004, modified from Mulda- vin et al. (2011). �� 50 Figure 4-6. Change in total area of coverage of major vegetation map units from 1981 (white bars) – 2004 (black bars). 51 Figure 4-7. Expansion of plant communities with a shrub component (J-S, PJ-S, SH-O, SHRU, PP-S, PPJS, PMCS, MC-S) from 1981–2004. a. Spatial distribution of shrubs as a major community component. b. Areal coverage of shrubs as a major community component. .. 52 Figure 4-8. Montane meadow. NPS photo. 56 Figure 4-9. Changes in montane grassland area, 1935–1981, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico. 57 Figure 4-10. Vegetation communities within the Cerro Grand Fire perimeter as mapped based on 1981 imagery (Allen 1990) and 2004 imagery (Muldavin 2011). 62 Figure 4-11. Number and mean height of aspen stems inside elk exclosures and in Contents v Figures (continued) control plots outside of exclosures over five years. 67 Figure 4-12. Changes in vegetation cover, 1954–1963, in the study area at Ban- delier National Monument, showing persistent ponderosa pine forest (green), persistent piñon-juniper woodland (yellow), and the ecotone shift zone (red) where forest changed

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