The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds

March 25, 2008

Richard Louv to speak in Colorado Springs

Filed under: Activities, Education, Events, For Kids, Lectures, Partnerships — The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. @ 4:44 pm

by Sally McCracken Maertens, Friends Vice President

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t pick up a magazine, a newspaper, a professional journal, or a newsletter and see a reference to getting our kids outside again. So many of us “older fossils” were raised outdoors. It is sad to hear kids say that they would rather be inside with video games and computers.

Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder has made us sit up and take notice. The National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, state parks, health organizations, environmental agencies, and educational institutions have all begun to work on initiatives to “leave no child inside.”

The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds have finally been able to confirm a speaking engagement date with Richard Louv. Mark Friday, October 3, 2008, on your calendars! A weekend of outdoor activities is being planned by a core group of stakeholders, including Colorado College, the Catamount Institute, Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, the Sierra Club and the School in the Woods. We are all very excited. Credit will be available for teachers.

Once the basics are accomplished by the planning team, more information will be available to our members. We hope that the weekend of October 3-5 will be a great event for the people of El Paso and Teller County. We will be looking for volunteers to help with various aspects of the event. If you would like to help, please contact Sally McCracken Maertens at smaertens@fossilbeds.org.

February 3, 2008

New bookstore offerings and upcoming events

Filed under: Bookstore, Education, Events, Friends, Partnerships — The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. @ 6:15 pm

New Books at Monument Bookstore

The Rocky Mountain Nature Association (RMNA) is the concessionaire for the bookstore at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. People step in the front door of the visitor center many times just to buy books. The books and many other items are chosen carefully by Jo Beckwith, the manager for RMNA.

Jo wishes you to know about several new titles that have arrived recently. In addition to these new titles, many more are being ordered for the summer of 2008 (the bookstore also carries Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods if you need a copy).

Look for these new titles when you pay us a visit:

Birding Colorado: Over 180 Premier Birding Sites at 93 Locations, by Hugh Kingery, is a new field guide featuring over 90 prime birding locations with more than 179 sites in total. $19.95.

Colorado Journey Guide, by Jon Kramer and Julie Martinez, is a driving and hiking guide to fossils, formations, ruins and rock art throughout the state. The guide features Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument as the best paleontological site in Colorado. $16.95.

Tourist Guide to Colorado in 1879, by Frank Fossett, takes the reader on a historic trip through Colorado, including 1879 prices, travel, accommodations and other fun facts. $8.95.

Come visit the Monument, see the new exhibits, and browse in the bookstore. If you can’t make it to the park in person, you can order books and others items from RMNA at their website, www.rmna.org.

-Sally McCracken Maertens

Upcoming Events

The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds are pleased to announce that we have confirmed a speaking date for Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. October 3-5, 2008, will mark a weekend of outdoor activities planned by planned by the Friends, Colorado College, the Catamount Institute, the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, the Sierra Club and the School in the Woods. More information about this event will be posted as it becomes available.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument will be hosting an open house on Saturday, March 15, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The Friends will lead a hike at 10:00 a.m. Join us in the yurt for hot chocolate, snacks, and fun!

The Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, a Friends partner, will be holding a conference April 25-27 called Teaching OUTSIDE the Box. This conference will bring together classroom teachers, environmental educators, interpreters, policy makers, and natural resource professionals to share techniques for outdoor education.

The Friends will provide four $100.00 scholarships for teachers from targeted school districts: Woodland Park, Manitou Springs, Cripple Creek, and the Lake George Charter School.

To learn more about upcoming events the Friends are involved in, visit our Event Calendar. We hope to see you soon!

-Melissa Barton

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).

September 28, 2007

New exhibits featured in Harper’s Ferry Center newsletter

Filed under: Exhibits, Interpretation, News, Partnerships — The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds, Inc. @ 12:00 pm

A volunteer mounts a fossil for news exhibits at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

This month you can read all about how Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument’s new exhibits were designed and produced in the free Harper’s Ferry Center (HFC) newsletter, HFC on Media. HFC provides exhibit design services and other interpretive support to units throughout the National Park Service. They are currently involved in design for a new park brochure and wayside exhibits for the Fossil Beds.

The new exhibits would not be up without the huge amount of work put in by Jeff Wolin, as well as the invaluable assistance of park volunteers in fabrication and installation. Many different talents went into making these exhibits a reality.

Download the September 2007 issue of HFC on Media (PDF).

Photo: Melissa Barton

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