canyon de chelly national monument

last week i went to Canyon de Chelly National Monument for a work meeting. it is a very unique national park unit in that the land is owned by the Navajo Nation, and Navajo families still live and farm in the monument. in fact, one of the principal objectives of the monument is to provide for the continuation of traditional cultural lifestyles. they have just started a huge project to remove non-native russian olive and tamarisk (AKA salt-cedar) trees from the canyon floor. back in the 1930's the Soils Conservation Service decided that the canyon bottom soil needed to be stabilized, so they planted these highly invasive species. they have now taken over the canyon and have changed water availability, the shape of the canyon and have driven many navajo families out - their land has become unfit for the kind of agriculture they practice. the park hired a crew of 28 navajos, trained them and set them to work cutting down tamarisk and russian olive. it is a huge undertaking, 100s of acres. little old navajo grandmas are coming up to them, overjoyed, saying they haven't felt the sun on their faces or the breeze in their hair in this particular place since they were little girls. it is amazing.

this picture is from a recently cleared area that used to be solid tamarisk & russian olive. the red rock formation in the distance was not visible at all, nor the wall immediately to the left. see more pictures from Canyon de Chelly at flickr