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Quick Fact Only four
scientists - from two institutions, have conducted
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What the Bill Says (6) designation of the trackways site as a National Monument would protect the unique fossil resources for present and future generations while allowing for public education and continued scientific research opportunities. What is preventing education and continued scientific research from happening now?
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Would National Monument designation magically yield more information about the environment of 280 million years ago, or would it just add a layer of bureaucracy to any future research?
Can the scientists not do anymore study and research without National Monument designation?
So far only two people have gone on record as having visited all 34 sites identified in the 1994 Smithsonian report
If it was such a great paleontological attraction, why are people not flocking to the area in droves?
With this question in mind, some very specific questions were recently posed to the Las Cruces BLM office and here are the answers: Q. How many people or institutions have obtained permits to study the trackways since the establishment of the RNA? A. Two institutions have held permits to conduct research in the RNA. There were a total of four researchers.
Q. Who were these people and when did they do their research? A. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) holds a statewide permit for BLM lands in New Mexico. This institution has visited and collected from sites within the RNA and the Robledo Mountains. Dr. Spencer Lucas, Dr. Andrew Heckert, Dr. Adrian Hunt and others are some of the vertebrate paleontologists who have collected and studied these specimens. The NMMNHS has published three bulletins (1995, 1998 and 2005) related to the fossil material, associated sediments and how they relate to other Permian rocks in New Mexico. In addition to these paleontologists, visiting paleontologists from a number of states and countries have studied specimens housed at the NMMNHS from the Robledo Mountains (including localities within the RNA). For example, during calendar year 2004, nine scientists visited the collections at NMMNHS to study the Permian collections held there.
Q. Page 45 of the 1994 Smithsonian report identifies 34 localities as paleontological sites within the southern Robledo Mountains. Have BLM Geologists or Paleontologists visited each and every site and verified the validity of the claim? A. No. BLM geologists have not visited all the localities.
Congress is being asked to designate a National Monument even though there is no proof that the reason for the monument even exists. The Department of the Interior manages this land and its own staff members have not thoroughly analyzed all of the alleged trace fossil sites. It was then asked if they knew who had visited all the localities:
Q. If so, who did, when and what did they find. A. BLM Regional paleontologists, Mike O’Neill and currently Pat Hester have visited several localities and have relied on the Vertebrate Paleontologists at the NMMNHS to assess the significance of the localities. Mr. O’Neill visited localities in the late early 1990’s. Ms. Hester has visited localities in the early 1990s, 1994, 2003 and 2005. The NMMNHS is the BLM’s partner in the management of fossil resources on public land. The localities were found to contain important invertebrate trace fossils, vertebrate trace fossils and important plant material that provide information used to interpret ancient environments. The BLM response indicates than only two employees of the BLM have ever set foot in the area with the intent of looking at these trace fossils. The response also indicates that most localities were never looked at . When Pat Hester, the current BLM Regional paleontologists, was asked recently how many sites she has visited, she answered “four”.
Even the proponents website just talks about the paleontological viewpoint when discussing the significance. Question three asks how significant is this area from a paleontological standpoint? The importance and significance of the paleontological resources within the Southern portion of the Robledo Mountains are irrefutable. The trackways have been recognized and displayed at the Smithsonian and Carnegie museums and have also been featured in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. In the 1994 Congressional study entitled "The Paleozoic Trackways Scientific Study Report" authors Nicholas Hotton III of the Smithsonian Institution, Spencer Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and Adrian Hunt of the University of Colorado at Denver were in unanimous agreement that Robledo Mountain site contains ‘the most scientifically significant early Permian tracksites’ in the world.’
If this discovery is so irrefutably significant, why has only one other institution besides the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, applied for and done research in the decade since the BLM designated the area as an Research Natural Area in 1993?
So what if a handful of scientists feel that this is the most scientifically significant Early Permian tracksites' in the world? That is their job, their profession, and their passion. |
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Apparently these tracks are not all that significant to the rest of the world! |
