The provincial legislature of Santa Cruz recently voted to devote 80,000 hectares to the creation of a new national park: the Bosque Petrificado de Jaramillo (Petrified Forest of Jaramillo).According to La Nación, the Petrified Forest will now be far better protected than it was in the past.Petrified wood in the province of Santa Cruz comes from enormous trees which, during the Jurassic Period 130 million years ago, covered much of Patagonia.When they fell and the climate changed, they became some of the oldest and largest fossils seen today on the earth.With the addition of this national park, the province of Santa Cruz now has four national parks within its borders.

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