Vegetation of Salinas National Monument, Abo and Quarai Units: Semi-Annual Report

Floyd-Hanna, Lisa; Hanna, David; Heil, Ken

Introduction: In 1992 the Southwest Region of the National Park Service requested a study of the vegetation of Quarai and Abo Monuments of the Salinas complex. Upon reconnaissance, we found that the Abo Monument supports pinon pine and juniper woodlands in varying degrees of recovery from historic use. Clearing of juniper, probably for fence poles, had altered the terrain over much of the recently expanded Monument. A rich assemblage of riparian plants is supported in the perennial water ways. The mounds created by prehistoric archeological ruins are covered with cholla cacti and herbaceous "weedy' species. At Quarai, a relatively complex group of plant communities are found; pifton-juniper woodlands, juniper woodlands, mountain shrub complexes, open meadows of various degrees of historic disturbance, well developed riparian zone along the Punta de Aqua Spring. Mounds, remnants of archeological sites support wolfberry, cholla and numerous shrub species. We consulted with the National Park Service staff to determine the product which would best suit their management goals. We determined that a vegetation map based on available aerial coverage would be developed and that each vegetation unit would be named with the Brown, Lowe and Pace classification which is currently being adopted by the Colorado Plateau Parks. We also determined that specimens could not be housed at the Monument or the Regional herbarium, therefore San Juan College was chosen as the repository for all plant specimens. Finally, we decided that photographs of the common elements of the vegetation communities would assist the Interpretive staff. Where possible such photographs were taken. This report summarizes progress to date. An initial reconnaissance was made in the Fall of 1992, preliminary community boundaries were made from aerials provided by the Monument (Fulfer, pers. comm.), the field survey has been completed, photographs have been recorded, and the vegetation survey has been statistically delineated into communities using a multivariate analysis called 1WINSPAN I CANOCO. We are presently awaiting base maps upon which we can overlay the vegetation zones to create the fmal map, generously being provided by the staff at the Southwest GIS Center (Fletcher, pers. comm). When the base maps are available, the spatial delineation of each community will be made.