The vast public lands entrusted to
the Bureau of Land Management hold some of the most significant
evidence of human prehistory
and history in the West and Alaska, the once-untamed frontier
lands that lend America so much of its self-image. These Western
and Alaskan lands also count among the world's very best outdoor
laboratories for studying the fossilized remains of plant and
animal life, which span from the tens of thousands to the hundreds
of millions of years in age.
Humans have used and occupied the
public lands for more than 10,000 years. In all that time the
land has changed. And more than we might realize, human use has
played a significant part in changing the land.
Long-abandoned archaeological sites
and historic landscapes give us important insights into the ways
human activities and the environment have linked together through
time, how seemingly minor cultural practices can contribute to
substantial environmental change. Discovering, studying and understanding
the evidence of past human influences on the land can give BLM
and the public critically important background as we plan how
we should be using the same land today and in the future.
More kinds of fossils can be found
on the BLM-managed public lands than under any other Federal or
State agency's control, and all Americans share in this unique
natural legacy. Fossils are the remains and traces of once-living
organisms, preserved in rocks of the Earth's crust. They convey
the story of origins and endings of extraordinary varieties of
ocean-dwelling, fresh-water, and terrestrial creatures, played
out over nearly 4 billion years of the Earth's 4.6 billion-year
history.
Visit a "Live Map" to the BLM States
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