General Management Plan: Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument

Us Department of Interior, National Park Service

This management plan will fully protect the monument's internationally significant resources and fulfill the monument's mandate to provide a center for paleontological research and education. Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument protects the world's richest known fossil deposits from the late Pliocene time period. When established in 1988, the monument was also given a unique legislative mandate: to provide a center for continuing paleontological research and education.The diverse Hagerman fossil specimens represent the last vestiges of species that existed before the Ice Age and the earliest appearances of modern flora and fauna. The deposits are contained in continuous, uninterrupted geologic strata exposing 500,000 years of an intact paleoecosystem, including wetland, riparian, and grassland savanna habitats.More than 550 fossil sites have been documented at different horizons within the sediments. The best known discovery is the Hagerman Horse, Equus simplicidens, now the official Idaho state fossil. The Hagerman Horse Quarry, a national natural landmark, is recognized as one of the most important sites in the world related to the fossil history of the horse. Also preserved are more than 200 species of vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants. The monument's high concentration of sites from a relatively short geological span of time makes possible the understanding of geological events, environmental changes, and biodiversity not possible from most fossil areas.Perhaps the true scientific significance of the Hagerman fossils is yet to be defined. A recent discovery -- in sediments 3 million years old -- was a log that has never been fossilized. This is the only known recovery of organic wood in North America dating from the Tertiary period. Scientists will analyze this ancient log, including its cell structure and DNA, and use this information to compare its ecological organization with modern ecosystems.Many other natual and cultural resources are preserved in the monument. Most significantly, it is one of only three units in the national park system that contain parts of the Oregon National Historic Trail.This plan will fully protect these internationally significant resources and fulfill the mandate to provide a center for paleontological research and education. The focus of these efforts will be a research center and museum that will make it possible for visitors and students to experience hands-on interaction with the scientific discovery process. In addition, scientists at the monument will be able to expand our knowledge of the earth's history through that process.

General Management Plan: Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument

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