PROJECT P.I.C.K.: A PARTNERSHIP FOR PALEONTOLOGICAL EDUCATION, RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, AND RESEARCH

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument preserves late Eocene plant and insect fossils that provide important information about ancient environments, climate, and elevation. These paleontological resources provide the focal point for a unique partnership opportunity that is facilitating the Monument's programmatic goals for education, resource management, and research.

Project P.I.C.K (Paleontological Interns Conserving Knowledge) provides the Monument with the means to meet these goals. This project is made possible through a grant provided by Canon USA, Inc., Parks As Classrooms, and the National Parks Foundation. The program is a partnership between Woodland Park High School, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and the Florissant Fossil Quarry (a private quarry outside the Monument). It supports college-level interns who study paleontology, geology, resource management, interpretation, education, and museum curation. Each intern spends 3-4 months working for the Monument. Their work alternates between paleontology projects, writing curriculum, and performing out-reach in the local schools. The primary paleontology project involves construction of a comprehensive paleontologic database to document Florissant fossil specimens from museums around the country, as well as the corresponding publications in which the fossils were described . This database and indexing program contains over 7000 images and records, along with over 12,000 pages of related publications. The out-reach aspects of project P.I.C.K. involve developing and instructing an education program, which teaches high school students to excavate and catalog fossils for an institutional collection that is used by scientific researchers.

Benefits of the project include: 1) providing new fossil collections from an important site outside of Monument boundaries, 2) support for completion of the database, and 3) developing an active educational program that stimulates student interest in paleontology.