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11 Most Endangered
Archaeological Treasures of the Colorado Plateau
Year Listed: 1995
Location: , Colorado
Current Status: Favorable
Threat: Development, Poor Public Policy
Significance
A rugged expanse of dramatic beauty and rich history, the Colorado Plateau encompasses approximately 130 million acres in an area of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah known as the "Four Corners." The region contains one of the world's richest concentrations of prehistoric ruins, rock art and artifacts, many of them offering clues to the lifestyles of the ancient cultures that once inhabited the area – ancestors of the modern tribes that continue to inhabit the plateau.
Updates
Unfortunately, the primary factors that contributed to the Colorado Plateau's 11 Most listing – lack of funding, looting and vandalism and inappropriate recreational uses – remain threats to the area's archaeological treasures. Funding for archaeological surveys and law enforcement has declined, even though recreational use in some areas of the plateau has increased dramatically. In some places, only one federal law enforcement office patrols nearly 2 million acres. Additionally, looters and vandals, encouraged by the lack of a meaningful law enforcement presence, continue to damage and destroy archaeological sites. Finally, federal agencies continue to allow recreational uses without first conducting on the ground archaeological surveys to determine whether archaeological sites exist and will be affected.
However, some progress has been made since 1995, particularly in the protection of landscapes that contain significant concentrations of archaeological sites. For instance, between 1996 and 2001, the Clinton Administration created several new national monuments in the Colorado Plateau, including the Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermillion Cliffs national monuments in northern Arizona, and expanded a number of others. The designations are important because they require federal agencies to manage the national monuments in a way that ensures the long-term protection of their archaeological sites.
Since 1995, Congress has also protected broad swaths of the Colorado Plateau through a series of legislative designations. Notably, in 2004, Congress protected 4,591 acres in New Mexico's Galisteo Basin through the Galisto Basin Archaeological Sites Protection Act. The Galisteo Basin contains at least 24 significant archaeological sites, including "the largest ruins of Pueblo Indian settlements in the United States, spectacular examples of Native American rock art, and ruins of Spanish colonial settlements. . . ." More recently, as part of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, Congress formally established the National Landscape Conservation System, which the Clinton Administration created through an administrative order in 2000. The Conservation System contains over 26 million acres of public land managed by BLM that exists for the purpose of conserving and protecting archaeological, cultural and natural resources.
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