Restoration work at Aztec Ruins National Monument aimed at reducing erosion

A landscape restoration project is underway at Aztec Ruins National Monument that will see native vegetation planted and nurtured as part of an effort to protect the park’s cultural resources.

National Park Service officials announced the project in a May 10 news release. The agency received $344,000 in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress in 2022 for the work, which began May 13, according to Nathan Hatfield, the chief of interpretation at Aztec Ruins and at Chaco Culture National Historic Park.

The new vegetation will consist of alkali grass, ricegrass, blue gamma, saltbush and big basin sage, Hatfield said. It is being planted to stabilize the area from ongoing soil loss and protect unexcavated cultural resources at the park from the risk of wind erosion and climate change, according to the news release.

Invasive plant species that have appeared in the area will be removed, the release states.

“Completing this project is critical to the long-range health of the natural and cultural landscape at Aztec Ruins National Monument,” Superintendent Denise Robertson states in the news release. “The project will help to meet National Park Service goals to enhance resiliency and improve the natural habitat and better protect the cultural sites.”

Hatfield said workers begin putting up fencing around the site behind the Aztec West Great House on Monday, and the 15 acres could remain enclosed until 2026, he said, depending on how long it takes the new plants to establish themselves.

“If everything goes well and the plants take hold, they could remove the fencing area before that,” he said.

Aztec Ruins consists of nearly 318 acres, so the restoration area represents only a small portion of the park’s total acreage. But Hatfield said work of this nature is new to the park.

“Before these lands were acquired by the Park Service, they were agricultural lands,” he said. “They haven’t been disturbed since then. We haven’t done anything like this to restore native land.”

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When Aztec Ruins was established as a national monument in 1923, it consisted of only 4.6 acres, Hatfield noted. Various acquisitions of additional land in the 1920s, 1930s and 1980s eventually brought that total up to its current figure.

The project is part of a $195 million investment in parks across the country from the Inflation Reduction Act, the news release states. The money is intended to help prepare parks to be more resilient to climate change.

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This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Aztec Ruins project being funded by Inflation Reduction Act funding