Natural Resources at Aztec Ruins National Monument

Ruins of a kiva and walls, with brightly colored fall foliage in the background
Eastern wall and kiva in autumn.

NPS / SCPN

Aztec Ruins National Monument encompasses 321 acres within the city of Aztec in the Animas Valley of northwestern New Mexico. It was established as a monument in 1923 to protect the remains of an Ancestral Puebloan farming community.

Despite its small size, Aztec Ruins NM has an usually high level of biodiversity, with 11 types of vegetation communities (including riparian, pinyon-juniper woodlands, and grasslands), 70 bird species, 28 mammal species (including seven species of bats), three amphibian species and 10 reptile species. The Animas River, which forms the eastern border of the park, provides a perennial source of water.

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Life Zones

Aztec Ruins NM ranges in elevation from 5,592 to 5,786 feet (1,716-1,764 m) and lies within the Semi-desert Grassland/Shrub Steppe and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland life zones. The monument experiences an average annual precipitation of 9.9 inches (252 mm).

Graphic of a mountain divided into illustrated vegetation zones by elevation and exposure, with the elevations that correspond to Aztec Ruins National Monument highlighted

Climate Summary Chart

Charts are an effective way to summarize and graphically represent climate variables. The following chart is based on the diagrams developed for vegetation studies by Walter and Lieth in 1967. Visit our climate page for more information.

Graph with lines charting average temperature and precipitation at Aztec Ruins National Monument from 1895 to 2012 by the time of year.


Reports & Publications

Inventories are point-in-time surveys that help us learn about the resources in our parks. Information obtained through the Southern Colorado Plateau Network’s inventories of park resources helped to establish a base level of data, which has served as a starting point for our natural resource monitoring.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3515 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

Our monitoring reports provide the most recent published findings from our field work.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3471 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

Protocols describe how we monitor. They include a descriptive narrative of what we monitor and why, our field methods, how we analyze and manage our data, and more. All of our protocols are peer reviewed.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3280 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

Find additional documents on our Reports & Publications pages.

Links

Park Flora (SEINet)

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    Last updated: December 4, 2023