Cool article. The four corners area has an astonishing variety of climates and terrains. In many ways this is a strength for the region, but microclimates are delicate and climate change led to massive disruptions in a delicate balance.
As an aside, I'm glad to see that 'Ancestral Puebloan' has superseded 'Anasazi' as the demonym for the Chaco Canyon & Mesa Verde civilizations.
A little further south, the Mogollon people [1] are also getting more attention. Lots of the groups in that area moved north and south based on periods of cold or droughts, came into conflicts, and so on (at least this is the current theory behind things like the Gila Cliff dwellings and Mesa Verde and similar cliff dwelling sites, AIUI).
looks similar to how we'll be living on Mars. One can imagine an alien (or even human descendants) archeologist some millennia later on Mars wondering where all that metal and plastic came from.
Probably Mesa Verdians understood if you cut down trees around your village, your quality of life will go down.
Petra, in Jordan, is said to have once been surrounded by forest.
When you cut down all the trees, in many places, you get desert where the trees used to be. I.e., trees bring and retain moisture. It can work in reverse: growing trees, you can encroach on desert. This is going on today along the southern edge of the Sahara.
