Quick Fact

Any speculated trackways are already protected by mother nature and the law

What the Bill Says
Section 3 (5) states:

 ...many irreplaceable trackways specimens have been lost to vandalism or theft

How can vandals and looters be finding and taking these tracks when trained researchers
have not found any more significant trackways in the last twenty years?

Protection From People
 

The bill claims that "many irreplaceable trackways specimens have been lost to vandalism or theft".

Is this really happening, or is someone making these claims to get an emotional, knee-jerk reaction from
Senator Bingaman to lock up the area as a National Monument?

After the hearings on S3599 (the trackway bill introduced last session of Congress) questions were sent to the witnesses.

Senator Domenici asked the the Department of Interior this question directly:

Question 16. Has there been any documented vandalism to known sites and what has BLM done to investigate and recover
stolen artifacts?

Well maybe one of the other witnesses, Dr. Hunt, can shed some light on this.

Senator Domenici asked him the same question:
Question 3. Has there been any documented vandalism to known sites and what action if any has been taken to investigate
and recover stolen artifacts?

OOPS, we are down to several, not many as he just refers to "several slabs" that were lying on the surface.

These slabs only got to the surface after they were dug up. So if they were dug up and left lying on the surface, maybe they were left there because they were not good enough specimens to cart off to a museum.

It is well documented that once these tracks are exposed to the elements, that they deteriorate rapidly.

So why would a good valuable specimen have been left exposed to the elements to be destroyed by nature?

Notice also that he did not say that someone had gone out there and excavated for specimens. These trace fossils are just not worth the effort to dig up to anyone except a few scientists.

So this leads to the really big question of:

How easy are these trace fossils to find in the first place?

Check out the discussion on this website about the fact that there are no exposed trackways.

Protection From The Elements
 

The 1994 Smithsonian report had quite a discussion about protecting the area. Section C - Alternatives For Protection ONLY talks about the discovery site. It starts off with this statement: "A. CURRENT AND FUTURE THREATS TO THE SITE (NMMNH LOCALITY 846) FROM NATURAL CAUSES"

Here is what the rest of it says:

The excavated area exposes finely laminated siltstones and mudstone along the margin of an intermittent arroyo in a steep-walled canyon. Threats to the site from natural causes can be divided into three categories: (1) canyon walls; (2) arroyo; and (3) in situ problems. These problems can be categorized as follows: 

1.     Water flow - canyon wall directs flow of runoff directly over tracksite

a. drainage from water flow (erosion)

b. damage from transported debris (erosion)

c. water introduced to the tracksite enhances chemical and physical weathering. '

2.     Topography - erosion and weathering of canyon walls creates debris which falls onto tracksite, decreases safety and enjoyment of site by visitors and must be removed;

a. large debris falls and creates impact damage.

b. large and small debris (dust, sand) falls, covers site to some degree and impacts aesthetics and interpretive value of site.

c. large landslide completely buries site.

Again and again, everything keeps coming back to the discovery site. That is ALL the report studied and ALL it saw fit to discuss when talking about protection.

The number one problem discussed is erosion, but the really interesting issue is under Topography and the discussion about debris falling down into the excavated site. Yes, that is going to happen when someone cuts into the bottom of a 200 foot high hill! Look at what has happened with debris fall and erosion so far:

This picture shows the debris coming down from the 200 foot mountain above the excavation site.	More debris from the mountain	The small debris falls that the report refers to.	This erosion will bring down even more debris	Another view of the rocks that are ready to fall down. The site is almost dangerous for anyone to approach the hill side to closely.

Protection From The Quarry
 

Shortly after the 1994 Smithsonian report was released, the BLM designated 720 acres around the discovery site as a Research Natural Area (RNA). Unfortunately, to protect the secrecy of where the trackways were, they never published a map of the RNA.

RESEARCH NATURAL AREAS (RNAs) IN NEW MEXICO

So, from 1993 until 1998, when the BLM put out a map of the Chile Canyon OHV trails, there were no maps available to let people know where the protected area was.

At a county commission meeting in early 2006, BLM staff was requested to make a map available and to identify the area on ground. Notice that the RNA is quite different on the two maps. It makes one wonder if the BLM really knew where the RNA was. By now it was to late, since the quarry had already covered up several sites:

This recent satellite photo of the discovery area and quarry has the RNA boundary shown as a red overlay. Notice that the quarry now extends into the RNA and has affected several AF localities.	AF5 appears to have been completely covered with quarry tailings. It is now well protected from vandals and looters.	AF6 appears to have been partially covered with quarry tailings. It is now well protected from vandals and looters.	AF7 really appears to be one of the now famous bogus sites that was nowhere a red bed. So it is questionable as rather or not the quarry has really covered something here.	Bulldozers did a fine job of smoothing out this spot where AF8 is located. It is now well protected from vandals and looters.

The above discussion covers the impact that the quarry has had on several sites, but the really big question is, "Where were the scientists who think this is the most scientifically significant Early Permian tracksite' in the world?", and why did they not get the quarry stopped before these sites were covered?

Maybe these sites were really not that important.

So, we have a discovery site that had everything of value removed to museums and digging stopped because it became impossible to continue. We also have the quarry cover up several sites without getting the attention of the scientists that think this is the most scientifically significant Early Permian tracksite' in the world.

So, what is really going on?

The Paleozoic Trackways Foundation website has a “Ten Most Frequently Asked Questions: located at: http://www.paleozoictracks.org/pdf/questions.pdf.

Question six discusses the threats to the area:

Increasing population numbers, paired with the growth of off-road vehicles (ORV's) as a hobby have become threats to the preservation of Southern New Mexico’s wild places.  Erosion and noise are two major problems associated with ORV use.  Naturally occurring erosion is also a threat, as the tracks are in stone which was once mud.  Once exposed the stone is susceptible to weathering and erosion.  Another threat comes in the form of a quarry for stone used in decorative rock walls.  Some of the discovery sites have been damaged by quarrying activities and others are close enough to the quarry to be threatened by it. It makes sense to protect special areas now, before more damage occurs, rather than after the fact.  

Their discussion of preservation of Southern New Mexico’s wild places really reveals who is behind the monument push. This is exactly the same rhetoric that wilderness advocates are using to justify their “citizens” proposal for wilderness in Doña Ana County.

These land closure advocates are already trying to close over a half a million acres to the general public with wilderness designation within Doña Ana County.

This is just an additional 5,300 acres that they want and cannot justify trying to use wilderness designation to close it. In fact, some of the same people pushing for the monument are the same people pushing the wilderness designations.

They also fail to mention that the discovery site is over a mile from the nearest road. But, they will not admit that anyone vandalizing this remote site would have to access it on foot.

It is not remotely threatened by vehicles.

It is crystal clear what this national monument is all about - it is designed to get vehicles removed from the area and close the quarry.

They fail however, to discuss how much damage would be done excavating for more tracks.

The 1994 Smithsonian report only recommended some type of protection.

• It did not recommend national monument designation.

• The BLM is currently protecting the area with Research Natural Area designation, since 1993.

Something sounds really fishy here. Everything was either taken to museums or covered up, so what are the thieves or vandals damaging?

Is theft or vandalism really occurring
MythBusters would bust this myth wide open.