ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Archeologists at Bandelier National Monument and the adjacent Santa Fe National Forest are worried.
A fire last spring that burned more than 16,000 acres and stripped away ground cover was followed by heavy flooding, damaging valuable evidence of human settlement dating back as far as 9500 BC. This spring's snowmelt and summer rains could cause further harm.
"We can't save all of them," said Elizabeth Mozzillo, archeologist with the National Park Service at Bandelier, referring to the hundreds of archeological sites within the burned areas.
"We're dealing with rapidly accelerating erosion," she added.
Last April's Dome fire--which flared from an abandoned campfire--burned 16,516 acres of pinon, juniper, ponderosa pine and mixed conifer trees in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico near Los Alamos.
Severe burning stripped the thin topsoil in some areas of erosion protection--grass, brush, trees and an organic layer containing their seeds.
"We experienced major flooding last year, and we've been told it apparently will be worse this year," Mozzillo says.
Mountain snow will be melting, rushing down canyons. Summer thunderstorms will unleash their fury on the barren landscape. Water will cut or trickle through archeological sites. Come winter, water will freeze, rocks will crack.
The burned landscape included 4,779 acres in Bandelier, 3,092 acres in the adjacent Dome Wilderness--for which the fire was named--and the remainder in the Jemez Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest.
The scorched area in Bandelier included 422 known archeological sites, although there could be as many as 600 within the fire perimeter.
Mozzillo says 298 sites have been examined since the fire; 172 were burned and 48 required immediate treatment, mainly for erosion control.
"Things like building check dams, masonry dams, people putting in erosion breaks, reseeding with native seeds," Mozzillo says. "We also used geo-textiles--mats of fibrous materials are laid down."
Charisse Sydoriak, chief of resources management at Bandelier, says at least eight other sites need immediate attention.
And four to six additional sites--such as stone one-room fieldhouses or terraces--need emergency excavation.
A full assessment of sites will have to wait until the snow melts and the ground thaws, but some problems will have to be fixed before the heavy summer rains come in July and August, Sydoriak says.
