The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds

Last summer, teacher Greg Spalding led the effort to revise Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument’s Junior Ranger Program. Spalding received a Junior Ranger Ambassador grant, and after a week of training in Washington, D.C., he worked with Lead Interpretive Ranger Jeff Wolin to redesign the park’s Junior Ranger activity book.

Spalding also organized the Monument’s first Junior Ranger Day on July 21, 2007. Young visitors learned about fire safety, fossils, and wildlife with activities such as making plaster casts of animal tracks and splitting shale to find fossils.

“The new Junior Ranger book has more activities and reaches a wider audience,” Wolin says. “The activities are engaging, educational, and fun.”

The Friends and the Junior Ranger Ambassador Grant paid for the printing of the new activity book, which was published in December. Kids and parents love the new program:

I wanted to send a thank you to all of the staff and the ranger who assisted our family on Saturday this past week. Traveling to NPS sites is a hobby and something we have done for some years now. You have an excellent site. But you have excellent people which just adds to the site.

My daughter loves the Junior Ranger Programs and as I shared that day, yours is the best I have seen out of the dozens we have done. The staff who assisted her just continue to build that passion for history and nature and I cannot thank you enough for this.

That was one of the best mornings we have spent and I thank you for the experience. I hope you will send this to your district supervisor because our next generations are being educated by some great people…you. As both a parent and a citizen, I can not stress enough how impressed I was with your work.

Greg Block

The Junior Ranger Program is always available during the park’s visitation hours. For more information, call 719-748-3253 or ask at the front desk in the Visitor Center when you visit. Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is open 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., 7 days a week, except Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.

-Melissa Barton

Photo Credits: Friends Vice President and park volunteer Sally Maertens helps young visitors make casts of tracks (NPS Photo), Ranger Jeff Wolin and Junior Rangers take the Junior Ranger Pledge (NPS Photo)