Soil erosion is common in southwestern arid and semi-arid park lands.
In cases world-class archeological sites are under severe threat from sheet erosion or arroyo cutting, for example at the Bandelier and Chaco Culture monuments in New Mexico. In other parks overall ecosystem integrity is at risk. Lack of basic information and poor understanding of the erosional processes make it difficult or impossible to control erosion in these unique sites and do not allow prediction of erosion trends. Furthermore, we do not have the necessary methodologies to restore affected areas to a condition that approximates the original. For example we lack techniques for the use of native vegetation to restore ecosystems.