Teachers' Guide

Overview

Lesson List
and Standards

Visiting
The Dunes

Foundation
for Planning

Cross-reference

Technical
Guide

Foundation for Planning
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

The foundation for planning and management identifies and analyzes what is most important about the park. The foundation consists of two parts. Part one describes the specific intentions of Congress or the president in creating the park as a unit of the national park system. These intents, which must be achieved over all other considerations, include the park's purpose, significance, mission, primary interpretive themes, and special mandates. Part two identifies and documents the fundamental resources and values that warrant primary consideration during planning and management.

Part 1

Purpose

Park purpose statements convey the reasons for which the park was set aside as part of the national park system. They are grounded in a thorough analysis of the park's legislation and legislative history, and provide fundamental criteria against which the appropriateness of plan recommendations, operational decisions, and actions are tested.

The purpose of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is to:

• preserve spectacular and unique sand dunes and their high elevation watersheds and to perpetuate the entire system for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations
• provide long-term protection of the geological, hydrological, ecological, scenic, scientific, cultural, wilderness, educational, wildlife, and recreational resources of the area, including the sand deposits associated with the dune mass and the ground water system on which the sand dune and wetland systems depend, and the remarkable biodiversity evident in the landscape from the valley floor to the mountain crest
• provide opportunities for visitors to experience, understand, enjoy, and gain a sense of stewardship for the park's natural and cultural resources
• facilitate research to support park management, and to promote scientific knowledge and education

Significance

Park significance statements capture the essence of the park's importance to the nation's natural and cultural heritage. They describe the park's distinctiveness and describe why and area is important within regional, national, and global contexts. This helps park managers focus their efforts and limited funding on protection and enjoyment of attributes that are directly related to the purpose of the park.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve:

• contains the tallest dunes in North America and one of the most fragile and complex dune systems in the world.
• protects a globally significant, water- and wind-driven system, which includes creeks that demonstrate surge flow, a rare hydrologic phenomenon.
• provides tremendous scenic settings that, for many, provoke strong emotional responses. These settings (including massive dunes surrounded by alpine peaks, a desert valley, creeks flowing on the surface of the sand, pristine mountains, and rural range land) offer spacious relief from urban America, exceptional solitude and quiet, and a remarkably unspoiled day and night sky.
• hosts a great diversity of plants and animals, including insect species found nowhere else on earth. The system, which spans high desert to alpine life zones, supports rare biological communities that are mostly intact and functional.
• contains some of the oldest (9,000+ years before present) known archeological sites in America. The dunes have been identified as having special importance by people of various cultures, and the area is recognized for the culturally diverse nature of human use.
• provides special opportunities for recreation, exploration, and education in the highly resilient dune mass and adjoining creek environments.

Mission

The mission statement is a visionary summary that conveys the essence of the park qualities to be protected and understood, forging an intellectual and emotional connection between people and the national heritage.

Majestic and austere, the Great Sand Dunes rise from a high mountain valley flanked by some of the tallest peaks in the Rocky Mountains. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve celebrates the entire natural system of the Great Sand Dunes as well as a rich and living connection with ancient and modern peoples. Our mission is to offer visitors opportunities for learning, solitude, and a growing sense of stewardship in an accessible and undeniably enticing natural setting. The National Park Service works with park partners, neighbors, and the American public to protect this treasure forever.

Primary Interpretive Themes

Primary interpretive themes are the most important ideas and concepts communicated to the public about the park. They are the core of all interpretive programs and media provided to park visitors.

• The unexpected combination of massive dunes surrounded by alpine peaks, a desert valley, and creeks flowing on the surface of the sand makes Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve a unique landscape that inspires awe, mystery, and wonder.
• Although the active dune field appears stark, in reality, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a rich and complex environment ranging from desert valley floor to snow-capped mountain peaks, where many different plants and animals live in a variety of distinct natural communities.
• The tall dunes and the life they support are the most visible indicators of the health of the natural system that extends beyond park boundaries. To protect the ecological health of the park, the National Park Service must partner with the larger community.
• Just as human survival is dependent upon water, this complex, dynamic dune system, with its distinctive geological and biological character, is dependent on the area's unusual, fragile, and near-pristine water system for its continued existence.
• The same physical characteristics that influenced the formation of the sand dunes created a cultural crossroad, resulting in a landscape of special significance to many people over thousands of years.
• The Wilderness areas within Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve offer spacious relief from urban America, exceptional solitude and quiet, and a remarkably unspoiled day and night sky.

Special Mandates

Special mandates are legal requirements and administrative commitments that apply to a specific unit of the national park system. They are mandated by Congress or by signed agreements with other entities. Special mandates for Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve are listed below.

Advisory Council. The Secretary of Interior has responsibility for establishing a "Great Sand Dunes Advisory Council". The council is to advise the Secretary with respect to preparation and implementation of a management plan for the national park and preserve. The advisory council is to dissolve upon completion of the management plan (Great Sand Dunes Act of 2000, Public Law 106-530).

Water Resources. The Secretary is to obtain and exercise water rights required to fulfill the purposes of the national park and preserve, provided:
A) such water rights are managed according to Colorado state law.
B) the purposes and other substantive characteristics of water rights are established according to State law, except that the Secretary is specifically authorized to appropriate water exclusively for maintaining ground water levels, surface water levels, and stream flows on, across, and under the national park and preserve, to accomplish the purposes of the national park and preserve, and to protect park resources and park uses.
C) water rights are established without interfering with: 1) any exercise of a water right for a non-federal purpose in the San Luis Valley that existed when the 2000 Act was passed, and 2) the Closed Basin Division project.
D) except as provided below, no federal reservation of water may be claimed or established for the national park or preserve.

To the extent that a water right is established or acquired by the U.S. for Rio Grande National Forest, the water right will be 1) considered to be of equal use and value for the national preserve; and 2) retain its priority and purpose when included in the national preserve.

To the extent that a water right is established or acquired by the U.S. for Great Sand Dunes National Park, the water right will be 1) considered to be of equal use and value for the national park; and 2) retain its priority and purpose when included in the national park (Great Sand Dunes Act of 2000)

Two irrigation ditches in the headwaters of Medano Creek are associated with water rights senior to those of the Monument. The Hudson Ditch was constructed in 1886 and probably falls under the Ditch Act of 1866. The Medano Ditch was constructed in 1892 and probably falls under the Ditch Act of March 3, 1891.

Wilderness. Great Sand Dunes Wilderness Area, comprised primarily of the main dunes within Great Sand Dunes National Park, was established in 1976 by Public Law 94-567. It is 33,450 acres in size. The Sangre de Cristo Wilderness Area was established by the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-77). It is 226,420 acres in size. In 2000, 39,686 acres of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness was administratively transferred from the U.S. Forest Service to the National Park Service (Great Sand Dunes Act of 2000). Total designated Wilderness in Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve amounts to 75,641 acres.

Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping. Hunting, fishing, and trapping* shall generally be permitted on land and water within the preserve in accordance with applicable federal and state laws. Areas may be designated where, and limited periods established when, no hunting, fishing, or trapping are permitted for reasons of public safety, administration, or compliance with applicable law. (Great Sand Dunes Act of 2000)

*a state constitutional amendment was passed in 1996 made it generally unlawful to take wildlife with any leghold trap, any instant kill body-gripping design trap, or by poison or snare in the state of Colorado. (Colorado Revised Statutes 33-6-203)

Domestic Livestock. On former state or private land where grazing was permitted when the Act was passed and which is acquired for the national park or preserve, the Secretary, in consultation with the lessee, may permit continued grazing by the lessee at the time of acquisition. Where grazing was permitted on federal land when the 2000 act was passed, the Secretary may permit continued grazing unless it would harm the resources or values of the national park or preserve. The Secretary may accept voluntary termination of leases or permits for grazing within the national park or preserve (Great Sand Dunes Act of 2000)

Closed Basin Project. The Closed Basin Division, San Luis Valley Project (Closed Basin project) is located in a topographic depression (the Closed Basin) in the San Luis Valley. The purpose of the project is to pump and deliver unconfined ground water and available surface flows in the Closed Basin to the Rio Grande River via a 42-mile conveyance channel. The project helps Colorado meet its water delivery commitment to New Mexico and Texas under the Rio Grande Compact of 1939, and helps the United States meet its water delivery commitment to Mexico under a treaty dated May 21, 1906. The project also delivers water to the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge.

Features of the Closed Basin Division project within the national park are not to be affected by the park expansion. Management responsibility for Closed Basin project features within the national park is to remain with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Great Sand Dunes Act of 2000)

Part 2

Fundamental Resources and Values

Fundamental resources and values are systems, processes, features, visitor experiences, stories, scenes, etc. that warrant primary consideration during planning and management because they are critical to maintaining the park's purpose and maintaining its significance.

Any resources or values that are nationally significant in their own right-even though they are not related to the park's purpose and significance-are also identified. Fundamental resources and values are subject to periodic review and updating based on new information or changing conditions.

DUNES SYSTEM
The dunes system is complex, fragile, and dynamic due to interactions of sand, wind, streams, ground water, vegetation, and mountains. Main components of the dunes system must be protected to ensure that the system remains intact. Main components that can be feasibly managed are listed below. Sand particles, wind, and the geologic setting are important components but were not included in the list because they cannot be feasibly managed.

• dunefield (complex, tall, inland dunes)
  transport of sand by streams must be protected
  
• sand sheet (relatively flat sand sheet stabilized by vegetation)
  natural vegetation patterns must be protected
  
• sabkha (sand deposit hardened by minerals)
  groundwater aquifer must be protected
  
• Sand Creek (recycles sand)
  watershed and groundwater aquifer must be protected
  
• Medano Creek and its surge flow (recycles sand)
  watershed and groundwater aquifer must be protected
  
• groundwater aquifers (integral to sabkha, vegetation on sand sheet, surface water flows) natural water table levels must be maintained

NATURAL DIVERSITY
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve contains remarkable natural biological diversity, which is due largely to its range of elevation zones and mix of wet and desert habitats.

The following key resources help contribute to the dunes' unusual species diversity:

• insects that are endemic to the Great Sand Dunes
  (e.g., Great Sand Dunes Tiger beetle)
  
• Medano Creek's outstanding water quality and closed system
  serves as a genetic refuge/breeding area for native fish, such as the state-endangered Rio Grande sucker
  
• genetically pure cottonwoods
  located along creeks (e.g., Sand Creek)—up to 340 years old, oldest cored
  
• sand sheet wetlands
  (e.g., interdunal ponds, Big Spring Creek, Little Spring Creek)
  increases the variety of flora and fauna
  
• balanced and sustainable populations of native wildlife and plants
  important habitat and natural processes, including fire, must be protected
  
• tundra
  highly erosive, fragile (highly vulnerable to damage from visitor use)

HUMAN CONNECTIONS
The Great Sand Dunes have served as a prominent visual and cultural marker, drawing people physically and spiritually, for thousands of years. Cultural resources and values that are key to maintaining the park's purpose and significance include the following:

• early archeological sites
  associated with Folsom Early Man, 9,000 years before present
  prime examples include Big Spring, Stewart Cattle guard sites
• dunes area—important to contemporary Native American and other people
  e.g., traditional hunting and gathering place, sacred and spiritual place
• scarred ponderosa pines
  inner bark of scarred trees used by native peoples for food (mid 1800s)
  listed in the National Register of Historic Places
• contemporary community ties to the dunes
  emotional connection, support for park expansion

  note: the early Spanish influence, historic routes through mountain passes, mining and ranching history, national register buildings are all interesting and important, but they aren't critical to maintaining the purpose and significance of the Great Sand Dunes

VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES
The Great Sand Dunes are attractive, inviting, and approachable. These qualities and certain inspirational, recreational, and educational opportunities must be managed and protected to maintain the park's purpose and significance:

• climbing and descending the high dunes (get "sand in your shorts")
• experiencing surge flow, playing in Medano Creek near the foot of the dunes
• seeing "the heavens" (Milky Way, stars, planets, comets, etc.) at night
  dark night skies must be protected
• viewing the dune mass with backdrop of the high peaks and from the mountains
  key elements: views from west and south, viewing the dunes from the mountains, changing light conditions
  shadow and contrast especially impressive in early morning and evening
  air quality and undeveloped mountain slopes must be protected
• seeing wildlife in its natural setting (e.g., elk, pronghorn, deer)
  important habitat must be protected
• learning about the dunes system—its components and dynamic nature
  includes research, education, and stewardship opportunities
• experiencing quiet, solitude, isolation in a wilderness environment
• driving (4x4) in sand

note: the high country wilderness experience is wonderful, but it is not peculiar to the Great Sand Dunes, and it is probably not critical to maintaining purpose/significance. The high country was added to the park to protect Sand and Medano Creek watersheds. Other opportunities/ resources that are important but probably not critical to maintaining the park's purpose and significance include mountain trails, regional significance, fishing and hunting, backcountry use, campground