Conserving Stump P-47

Stump P-47 with a weather station

NPS Photo: Lauren Rice

Geoheritage Highlight!

As you conclude this virtual trail tour, you might wonder what the National Park Service is doing today to help preserve our Geoheritage from the past. An important part of Geoheritage involves conserving the record of Earth’s history so that it remains a part of our heritage for the future. Some of the petrified trees at Florissant were excavated by private landowners a century ago using dynamite! This caused cracks in the stumps, which continue to disintegrate today. The National Park Service is doing active research with university partners to develop innovative methods to conserve these stumps, and replacing some of the loose pieces. 

Most of Florissant’s petrified stumps occur just below the floor of the valley. Small chips of petrified wood along the ground show where they are located. The ones that you can see today are in pits that were dug by early landowners in the 1920s. Some evidence suggests that dynamite was used during these excavations to loosen the rock around the stumps, but this also caused cracks to develop in the stumps. When water enters these cracks, it can freeze and thaw many times during the year in Florissant’s cold climate. This ice causes expansion, which then leads to ongoing deterioration.

The stump you see above is being used to test new methods for stabilizing the petrified stumps to prevent future damage. Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is working with conservation experts at the University of Pennsylvania to assess the damage and reattach loose pieces. An important part of this future conservation will be to develop structures that will enclose the stumps and provide better protection from rain, snow, and cold temperatures.

A weather station has been installed beside this stump to measure air temperature as well as the temperature along the surface of the stump and inside the cracks. It also measures the ground moisture on top of the stump and around its base. Conservation experts and students from the University of Pennsylvania are working to attach pieces that have fallen from the petrified stump.