VERTEBRATE ICHNOLOGY IN THE NATIONAL LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION SYSTEM: TEN YEARS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL, FOSSIL FOOTPRINT TRACKING

The Western United States contains vast terrains known for their rugged beauty and resources. Among these lands are 27 million acres set aside as the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In 2009 the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, formally established the BLM administered NLCS and enacted Paleontological Resources Preservation legislation. Within the NLCS are over 886 federally recognized areas including National Monuments, National Conservation Areas, Wilderness Areas, Wilderness Study Areas, and other areas of special designation. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, NLCS lands are recognized as significant contributors to the science of paleontology. Federal agencies now have a mandate to both preserve paleontological resources on public lands and manage these resources using scientific principles and expertise. Over the past decade, the BLM has adopted a more active approach in the management of these resources by coordinating and promoting external research partnerships, as well as using cutting edge GIS, GPS, close-range photogrammetry (CRP), 3-D visualization, and other technological methods to document them. During this time, CRP has experienced rapid technological evolution. Economic high-resolution digital SLR cameras, increasing capabilities of computers, and advancements in the analytical software have simultaneously decreased the costs and increased the usability of CRP. In addition to ground-based photography, low-level aerial imagery (taken from small aircraft or unmanned vehicles) has been used in ichnological research within the NLCS. These fossil footprint studies include Permian to Middle Jurassic localities within the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument, NM, the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, AZ and UT, and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, UT.