RIDGE REPORT 2016 Annual Report Volume 28, Number 3 Friends of Dinosaur Ridge — The Ridge Report - Volume 28 #3 — 2016 Annual 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ADMINISTRATIVE NEWS 3 ������President’s Message 3 ������Executive Director’s Report 4 ������Friends of Dinosaur Ridge Education Programs 2016 The Ridge Report Volume 28, Number 3 4 ������Education Committee Report Fall/Winter 2016 5 ������Preservation Committee Annual Report for 2016 Published by 6 ������Gift Shop Report Friends of Dinosaur Ridge 6 ������Friends of Dinosaur Ridge: A Review of 2016 16831 W. Alameda Parkway Morrison, CO 80465 ARTICLES President, Board of Directors 7 ������Fun Fact - Amphicoelias Kermit Shields HONORS Executive Director 8 ������In Memoriam: Frank Adler Jeff Lamontagne UPCOMING EVENTS 2017 Editor Erin LaCount 8 ������Green River Fossil Fish Dig: May 26-28, 2017 9 ������Summer Camps 2017 Design & Layout Brian LaCount 10 ����Volunteer Trainings 2017 10 ����Dinosaur Discovery Days 2017 ADDITIONAL CONTENT 11 ����Coloring Page — Protoceratops 12 ����Calendar of Events 2017 Cover photo: Boy Scouts pal around with Mr. Bones during 14 ����Friends of Dinosaur Ridge Profit and Loss 2016 Boy Scout Day. 15 ����Friends of Dinosaur Ridge 2017 Editor Needed! Two Ridge Reports and one Annual Report per year. If interested, please email or call Blake Sullivan, [email protected] or 303-697-3466 x107 2 Friends of Dinosaur Ridge — The Ridge Report - Volume 28 #3 — 2016 Annual ADMINISTRATIVE NEWS Please remember that we still have a long way to go to fulfill President’s Message our mission. We need to build a track pavilion to protect our Passion. Dedication. Commitment. Whenever I go to the main Tracksite. We need to have a new or expanded Visitor Ridge or am involved in a Friends of Dinosaur Ridge event, I Center to serve the growing number of visitors. And we need see these qualities. I see them in the staff, the volunteers, the to get the word out in our local community and beyond about board members, the FoDR members and the Dinosaur Ridge the fantastic resource that we are supporting. neighbors. Dinosaur Ridge is poised to have a great 2017! Our new I see Trek Through Time docents interacting with visitors to executive director, Jeff Lamontagne, has a great vision for make it a great educational experience for them. I see guides our organization. We are bringing in new members to add a on the Ridge and at Triceratops Trail bring those fossils to life so fresh perspective to our Board that visitors can understand the geologic history of this area. I of Directors. Please continue to see everyone concerned about the future development of the support our organization and help lands around our Visitor Center. I see staff working to organize us to make it even greater. great programs. And I see our people working to preserve our geologic heritage and make our site look great. Dinosaur Ridge is a special place – partly due to the great geologic, paleontologic and historic features – but also due to Kermit Shields those of you who give of your time, treasure and talent. FoDR President Executive Director’s Report Thank you to the whole Dinosaur Ridge community for the warm program, but I spent the last five-plus years as Executive Director welcome that has been lavished on me over the past three of Bluff Lake Nature Center, an open space/wildlife refuge and weeks. As I am just completing three weeks at Dino Ridge, I environmental education center in east Denver. am still in a learning phase, but let me share a few of the most important things I’ve learned: I’m glad to share more about my background and my vision, and will do so in future columns here. Mostly, I can’t wait to learn Volunteers, staff, board members, and the community care about more about you, and your hopes and dreams for the future of this place with an incredible zeal; Dinosaur Ridge! I have never seen an organization in which so many people have been involved for so long—it’s incredible how much of their lives so many individuals have given to this place; I had visited Dinosaur Ridge many times with my family, but I had never fully appreciated the number and variety of treasures on the Ridge (and at Triceratops Trail) until spending more time with the real experts; So many great things have been accomplished at Dinosaur Ridge, and there is still so much potential for incredible growth in terms of visitation, exhibits, preservation, and discovery. The future is so exciting! So you can also learn a little bit about me if we haven’t met; I have lived in Lakewood for 17 years and have two kids, ages 16 and 14. We visited and hiked Dinosaur Ridge, and attended a few programs, especially when the kids were younger. The kids attend Lakewood High School, where my wife also teaches. I have a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University and a law degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. I am best known in Jeffco as the Co-Founder and long-time Executive Director of Second Wind Fund, a teen suicide prevention counseling Jeff Lamontagne, Executive Director Friends of Dinosaur Ridge — The Ridge Report - Volume 28 #3 — 2016 Annual 3 Friends of Dinosaur Ridge Education Programs 2016 School and Scheduled Programs 2016 Over 270 schools and other organizations came to Dinosaur Ridge for a field trip program in 2016! This included 16,830 participants from K-12 schools and organizations across Colorado! We’re hoping to see even more students come to Dinosaur Ridge for a one-of-a-kind educational experience in 2017. Summer Camps 2016 Campers from as far away as China, South Korea, Qatar, and Slovenia attended Dinosaur Ridge Summer Camps in 2016! Many children from much closer (Georgia, Florida, New York, Illinois, California, and, of course: Colorado) also participated! It was an amazing year and we hope to do even better in 2017! TriceraTOTs 2016 Our preschool program was very strong through 2016, with 191 preschoolers and their mom, dad, or grandparents attending for the unique story and craft time at the Discovery Center! We’re continuing great in 2017 and hope to see even bigger numbers from this demographic! Dinosaur Discovery (DD) Days 2016 In 2016 we hosted three DD Days: Boy Scout Day (May), Reptiles and Bird Day (August), and Girl Scout Day (October), the smallest slate of Discovery Days in many years. Despite that, around 2,550 people attended Friends of Dinosaur Ridge Discovery Days in 2016. We have five Dinosaur Discovery Days planned for 2017, and we’re hoping to see attendance numbers fly off the charts! Here’s to 2017 and all the possibilities in education it brings! Education Committee Report by Marsha Barber, Committee Chair Kid and adult visitors are curious about nature, and Friends of Di- K-12 School Tours nosaur Ridge wants all students and visitors to have an engaging • We encourage FoDR staff members to gather and provide additional experience while visiting our unique sites. It is our hope that all curriculum information to school tour volunteers so that students visitors will learn some science and come back for more. can more easily apply their classroom learning at a real outdoor sci- ence site. Making the school tour meaningful to students’ classroom In 2016, the Education Committee met quarterly and received learning provides a reason for teachers to bring classes to our sites. guidance from an education consultant who recommended we • Training and mentoring of school tour volunteers will focus on age-ap- focus on only a few priorities. The Committee decided that it can propriate strategies and content to deliver to different ages. provide guidance in 2017 for the following three educational proj- • Delivery of consistent school tour projects will encourage teachers to bring ects that fall under the Education Programs offered. their students to Dinosaur Ridge and Triceratops Trail year-after-year. Training Shuttle Bus Tours • We developed and offered appropriate introduction training to all • Training of shuttle bus tour guides will focus on getting families, volunteers, docents, and staff, so that they could become familiar scientists, and the general public from across Colorado, the United with the overall projects falling under the Education Program of- States, and the world excited about discovering the rocks and fossils fered by the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge. The introductory training found at Dinosaur Ridge. also addressed general logistics, guidelines for appropriate interac- • Shuttle bus tour staff will receive appropriate training and mentor- tion with the public, and how to address specific questions. ing before starting their jobs. • We plan to develop additional training and mentoring Friends of Dinosaur Ridge provides two excellent outdoor sites in and offer it to school tour volunteers, docents, and others close proximity to major highways and tourist attractions for visi- with specific science content and strategies to engage stu- tors of all ages to observe rocks and fossils in a natural setting. We dents and the public on tours and in Trek through Time. on the Education Committee want to help all visitors to become more excited about science after experiencing a tour at Dinosaur Ridge or Triceratops Trail. 4 Friends of Dinosaur Ridge — The Ridge Report - Volume 28 #3 — 2016 Annual Preservation Committee Annual Report for 2016 by Sam Bartlett In early February following the press release of newly discovered raptor tracks on the west side of Dinosaur Ridge, the Preservation Committee sprung into emergency action to protect the tracks from potential vandalism or removal. The two tracks are very fragile and susceptible to severe environmental damage due to their position on the underside of a dipping bedding plane in friable sandstone.