Assessing petrified wood change in Petrified Forest National Park

Abstract

The problem of petrified wood theft was examined in the Petrified Forest National Park. This study accomplished the following 2 objectives:

1. Perform a complete inventory throughout five high use areas at the Petrified Forest National Park

2. Quantify the petrified wood loss within the five high use areas at the Petrified Forest National Park over a one year time period.

Line intersect sampling was used to sample three size classes of petrified wood along with fixed area quadrat samples which sampled two size classes. Line intersect sampling units were established in August 1993 and revisited during August 1994. Line Intersect sampling results suggest that petrified wood displacement within the park does occur but not to the extent that Scher (1990) reports. Quadrat sampling results are not conclusive with regard to petrified wood displacement due to constraints on the sample design.