We hypothesized that vegetative changes would be visible in a series of repeat photographs (1948–2010) taken at the edge of the Bandera Lava Flow, New Mexico, while inventory of trees and data on age would reveal minimal structural and compositional changes at a woodland site on the inaccessible interior of the lava flow. We concluded that the insular qualities of the volcanic badlands resulted in minimal changes at the interior site during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, while noticeable vegetative changes occurred at the periphery of the Bandera Lava Flow during the same period. Vegetative changes at the lava-substrate interface could be linked to variability in use of land, management of fire, and precipitation.