FIELD MAPPING AS A TOOL IN PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH: A CASE STUDY FROM THE FAMOUS CHAZY REEF EXPOSURES ALONG GOODSELL RIDGE, ISLE LAMOTTE, VERMONT

The Isle LaMotte Preservation Land Trust has recently turned an 81 acre portion of Isle LaMotte, Vermont (northern Champlain Islands), into a nature preserve with a visitor center/museum. The Goodsell Ridge Natural History Preserve provides public access to the world famous Middle Ordovician reef exposures in the Chazy Group. A primary goal of this preserve is to convey the significance and geologic history of these rock exposures to the general public. Several challenges exist for visitors exploring the site; among them are troubles with identification of fossil and sedimentary features. First, unlike many dinosaur fossil sites where large bones have been excavated for view, the general public is largely unfamiliar with the three-dimensional forms of the fossil invertebrates involved. Second, the calcium carbonate fossils are preserved within limestone, so many of the reef features contrast poorly on weathered surfaces and require close examination. Third, glacial erosion and post-glacial weathering of the limestone has created many irregular, two-dimensional transects through both the reef structures and their component features.

An undergraduate-led mapping project of seven exposures designated as “discovery areas” aids visitors in recognizing integral features within the fossil reef strata. A detailed survey of the “discovery areas” provides maps for the location of fossil, sedimentary and modern landscape features that tell portions of the geological history of this site. Interpretive text explaining specific features within each “discovery area” is linked to exhibits within the farmhouse/museum that attempt to answer important questions, such as: 1) What are fossils and how do they preserve?; 2) What are reefs and why are they important to us?; 3) Why are these fossil reefs so important to our understanding of Earth history?; and 4) How did ancient reefs come to be exposed in a farm field in a northern cool-temperate climate area well away from the ocean? Care is taken to insure that museum concepts and text provided is both scientifically accurate and clear for the preserve visitors, as well as the local volunteers who are actually constructing the museum displays on a small budget.