USING THE GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY OF FLORISSANT FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT AS A METHOD OF OUTREACH TO LATINO AUDIENCES

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is located in Teller County, Colorado and is designated to protect and preserve the Eocene fossils described by scientists since the 1870’s. The main fossils viewable to visitors are the excavated petrified Redwood (Sequoia Affinis) stumps in the Florissant formation. The purpose of our project is to use geology as a means of communication in the park towards Latino audiences. The goal was to increase diversity specifically in visitors of Latino descent, which has been determined to be approximately 1-2% during the summer of 2020. While it can be attributable to other factors, this statistic is not substantially different from previous years. The Latino Heritage Internship Program (LHIP) is a youth program for the National Park Service (NPS) to fulfill their mission of increasing diversity in the NPS workforce. Through LHIP, we implemented techniques for outreach in efforts to bring awareness of the park to local and nationwide Latino communities. These efforts include: the creation of artwork for activities that relates the geological resources of the park to Latino culture, diversified activities within the curriculum of our virtual geology and paleontology camp, research of Latino settlers and descendants of the early Florissant pioneers to directly connect Latino heritage to the park. We used social media as a national platform to share these projects. The reception of these outreach strategies will have lasting and multiplying effects for future generations of Latino visitors that will aid in the overall efforts of diversifying National Park sites.