Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site: Natural Resource Condition Assessment

Struthers, Kimberly; Bennetts, Robert; Chambers, Nina; Sosinski, Heidi; Valentine-Darby, Patricia; Folts-Zettner, Tomye

The Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) Program, administered by National Park Service’s (NPS) Water Resources Division, aims to provide documentation about current conditions of important park natural resources through a spatially explicit, multi-disciplinary synthesis of existing scientific data and knowledge. The NRCA for Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site began in 2012, and 14 focal study natural resources were chosen for the Historic Site’s NRCA. These resources were organized into three categories that ranged in contexts from broader to narrower including landscape-scale, supporting environment (i.e., physical resources), and biological integrity, which included wildlife and vegetation topics. Sand Creek Massacre was provided protection on November 7, 2000 ([Public Law 106-465]) and dedicated as a national park unit in 2007. The Historic Site was set aside to preserve a significant event in United States history that occurred on November 29, 1864 when a peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, under the leadership of Chief Black Kettle, were attacked by United States and volunteer Colorado soldiers. The surrounding area still maintains its rural and remote area much like it did in 1864, which has helped to preserve and protect the Historic Site’s natural and cultural resources. The landscape scale resources chosen for this assessment included viewshed, night sky, and soundscape. Overall, these resources are in relatively good condition. The condition of these three resources alone afford visitors an opportunity to experience the solitude and connection to Sand Creek Massacre’s “sense of place,” commemorating the fallen victims during the 1864 attack. The Historic Site’s supporting physical environment resource topics included air quality, geology, groundwater, and surface water. Interestingly, many of these topics, with the exception of air quality, are lacking specific data to provide insight into current condition and trend at the Historic Site. The resource topics related to vegetation include grasslands, riparian habitat, and exotic plants. All of these are in very good condition, including exotic plants, which is rare. In fact, in over 57% of park-wide plots surveyed for exotics, none were found, meaning the grasslands and riparian habitats are in good condition, especially relative to the presence of exotic plants. Finally, the wildlife resource topics included landbirds, prairie dogs, rare vertebrates, and aquatic invertebrates. Condition for landbirds is good, however, in early 2010 the sylvatic plague decimated the prairie dog colonies in and adjacent to the Historic Site. Data gaps exist for the remaining wildlife topics.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site: Natural Resource Condition Assessment

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