Bandelier Ecological Restoration Plan Final Environmental Impact Statement

The purpose of the Ecological Restoration Plan is to re-establish healthy, sustainable vegetative conditions within the piñon-juniper woodland and to mitigate accelerated soil erosion that threatens the cultural resources. Protection of these cultural resources is identified in Bandelier National Monument’s enabling legislation. Prior to creation of the monument, historic land use, particularly grazing, resulted in changes in ecosystem processes that continue to adversely affect both natural and cultural resources inside Bandelier. The most detrimental of these changes is the accelerated rate of soil erosion and associated loss of archeological resources occurring now in the piñon-juniper woodland. Continued rapid soil loss in already degraded piñon-juniper communities threatens the integrity of thousands of prehistoric cultural sites, which the monument was specifically set aside to preserve. Over 75% of the known prehistoric sites at Bandelier occur within piñon-juniper communities, an nearly 90% of these have experienced adverse effects related to erosion. Without management intervention to actively restore the herbaceous understory and stabilize soils in degraded woodland communities, an estimated 1,900 archeological sites are considered at risk of damage or loss from erosion.