“Every time I’ve gone out there, another handful of drilling sites appear somewhere in the general vicinity,” said Steve Speth, longtime park astronomer and president of Friends of Chaco. “It’s really been kind of astounding.”
On summer solstice, Saturday, June 20th the Friends of Chaco sponsored the Kitzit Dancers from Laguna Pueblo who danced at Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
On summer solstice, Saturday, June 20th the Friends of Chaco will be sponsoring the Kitzit Dancers from Laguna Pueblo at Chaco Culture National Historical Park. There will be two sets of dances at 9:30 and 11:30 am
It’s the archaeological landscape beyond New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon that is most threatened.
The primary threat to Chaco Canyon in (Theodore) Roosevelt’s time was looting of archaeologically and culturally precious sites, said Horning. “Today the threat is oil and gas development and fracking in particular.”
Oil and gas extraction around the area of Chaco Culture National Historical Park is being proposed by The Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Friends of Chaco has expressed its concerns to the Bureau of Land Management, and we encourage you to do the same. The BLM is soliciting feedback by COB on Wednesday, May 28, 2014, but you should feel free to express your views at any time.
Chaco has long been considered by many night sky enthusiasts to be one of the best places in America to stargaze. Today, amidst this ancient landscape, visitors can experience the same dark sky that the Chacoans observed a thousand years ago. The protection of dark night skies is a priority at Chaco not only for the enjoyment of star-gazing visitors, but for the natural environment as well. Nocturnal wildlife relies on darkness for survival, and the natural rhythms of humans and plants depend on an unaltered night sky. By designating over 99% of the park as a “natural darkness zone”, in which no permanent outdoor lighting exists, Chaco is ensuring the preservation of these nocturnal ecosystems.
There are almost 100 miles of rural uninhabited land surrounding Chaco Culture National Historic Park in North Western New Mexico. The area has long been known as an epic place to view the wonders of the night sky. On Thursday, the park is celebrating it’s designation as an International Dark Sky Park. With virutally zero light pollution around, once the sun sinks below the horizon, visitors are engulfed in utter darkness.
If you’ve been here before you’ll recognize that the Friends of Chaco website has undergone a major redesign. We are still working through some of the issues in getting this set up, but we hope our new site will better serve our members, those interested in the Park, and Chaco Culture National Historical itself.
The Friends of Chaco Flickr group is open to anyone interested in sharing images of Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park has just been named as the International Dark-Sky Associationʼs newest Dark Sky Park.
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