The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds

July 27, 2008

Tickets for Richard Louv presentation available August 1

Filed under: Activities, Conservation, Education, Events, For Kids, For Teachers, Lectures, People — The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. @ 12:00 pm

Last Child in the Woods book coverThanks to partnerships with the Catamount Institute and other local organization, Colorado residents will have the chance to hear Richard Louv, author of the award-winning book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder and recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal, speak at the Pikes Peak Center this October.

Tickets go on sale August 1 at 10 a.m. This event is part of No Child Left Inside Weekend, a collaboration between many Pikes Peak area parks and nature centers. For more information about scheduled activities and events as it becomes available, visit Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument’s No Child Left Inside website.

Who: Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
When: 7:00 p.m., Friday, October 3, 2008 (doors open at 5:30 p.m. for exhibits)
Where: Pikes Peak Center, Colorado Springs, CO

For more information, email info@catamountinstitute.org or call 719-471-0910, Ext. 106. Tickets go on sale August 1 at 10 a.m. Adults $10, Educators $7, Students $5. Contact Tickets West at 719-520-SHOW.

November 25, 2007

Friends announce partnership with Peruvian conservation group

Filed under: Conservation, Culture, Paleontology, Partnerships, Resource Management — The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. @ 12:00 pm

Photo of fossil logs at Piedra Chamana

At the 20th Anniversary Celebration in August, the Friends announced a new partnership with the Asociación de la Preservación y Defensa de los Restos Paleontológicos del Distrito de Sexi (Association for Preservation and Defense of the Paleontological Remains of the District of Sexi; SEXI). SEXI is a grassroots organization devoted to protecting and developing for tourism and research the petrified forest of Piedra Chamana, located near the village of Sexi, Peru.

Piedra Chamana preserves a diverse assemblage of 39-million-year-old woods and leaves from the middle Eocene, and has important implications for understanding the paleoclimate and history of low-latitude tropical forests. The fossil forest is also important as a scientific and educational resource for the people of the region.

Photo of fossil log at Piedra ChamanaFlorissant Fossil Beds National Monument paleontologist Dr. Herb Meyer and colleagues, including Dr. Deborah Woodcock of Clark University, have been providing assistance to the village of Sexi in setting up a program to monitor the fossil forest. Through a National Science Foundation grant, they were able to help arrange construction of a museum, and the National Park Service is currently assisting in exhibit design and brochure production.

The Friends hope to raise funds for SEXI that will be used for interpretive exhibits and posters, construction of a fence around the perimeter of Piedra Chamana to protect it from cattle and human impact, construction of a trail to the site. In addition, the Friends can offer information and guidance to SEXI on operating a park Friends group.

The Memorandum of Understanding will take effect upon the signature of the presidents of both organizations. It is currently being reviewed in Lima. The Friends hope this partnership will help enhance scientific knowledge, education, and conservation of this important fossil resource.

Friends President Steve Veatch presented further information about this partnership at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in October. To learn more about this partnership, you can contact him at sveatch@fossilbeds.org.

-Melissa Barton

Photo Credits: Dr. Herb Meyer

Learn more about Sexi and Piedra Chamana at Bienvenidos a Sexi (Spanish).

October 15, 2007

Friends celebrate 20 years of service

Filed under: Activities, Conservation, Events, Friends — The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. @ 12:00 pm

On August 20, the Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. celebrated 20 years of supporting Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. The Friends are the only group to support a fossil park, and although our numbers are small, we have supported and accomplished many large projects over the last 20 years.

Designs for Friends memorabiliaExhibits of Friends history were displayed in the yurt all day, along with the items for the silent auction. At left, sketches and other materials related to the design of the Friends t-shirt and patch, as well as the Junior Ranger patch. All of these were designed by Dorrie Bradley, whose husband Rick was the first president of the Friends.

Exhibit of past Friends eventsThe Friends have been involved in organizing many events, from March for the Parks to Homestead Days at the Hornbek Homestead. There was also an exhibit of seminar photographs and past newsletters, as well as photographs from last year’s T.D.A. Cockerell Expedition Centennial.

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September 6, 2007

Gazette highlights park need for new Visitor Center

Filed under: Conservation, Education, News, Paleontology, Resource Management — The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. @ 10:48 am

The Colorado Springs Gazette’s R. Scott Rappold wrote an article about Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument’s need for a new Visitor Center–read it in the September 4 Gazette.

One important point not covered in the article is that a new Visitor Center with a larger collections area will also give the park’s paleontology division room for expanding the collections and research program. This will benefit the public by providing new specimens to be displayed. New research will also support education programs and exhibits.

Note: The Cenozoic Era does span 65 million years ago to the present, so the buildings and fossils are both Cenozoic.

-Melissa Barton

August 16, 2007

Park fights to stop spread of yellow sweetclover

Filed under: Conservation, Ecology, Park Changes, Resource Management, Species Spotlight — The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. @ 12:00 pm

Interp intern Lindsey Stecker pulling sweetclover

Student Conservation Association intern Lindsey Stecker pulling sweetclover.

Yellow sweetcloverYellow sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis), an introduced European plant, grows profusely along roadways, trails, and in other disturbed areas throughout the plains and montane regions of North America, including Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Sweetclover is a hardy biennial that is used as fodder for livestock and for producing clover honey. Outside of cultivation, sweetclover can out-compete native plants, as well as overrun pastureland.  Sweetclover is aggressive and difficult to eradicate, and seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 30 years.

Yellow sweetclover growing along roadsideYellow sweetclover bushes can grow from 2 to 5 feet tall and have strong taproots. At right, sweetclover grows densely along the road to the Visitor Center. Park staff, particularly Student Conservation Association interpretive intern Lindsey Stecker (Boston University) and Chief Ranger Rick Wilson, have been working hard to control the spread of sweetclover this summer.

-Melissa Barton

Photo Credits: Melissa Barton

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