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In 1999, Congress approved a bill requiring all
federal lands to survey their lands, and try and account for all their
fossils.
Over the summer, I worked with the US Forest
Service, doing basically that, working to catalogue and plot all the fossil
localities in the Forest.
Part of this (the initial part) utilized both
satellite images (available through the now greatly downgraded www.terraserver.com), and aerial
photographs taken of the forest...these were used to identify potential
outcrops, which were then plotted on a topo map, later investigated and mapped
with GPS, fossiliferousness recorded (none, poor, high, etc.), plotted on a
digital topo, and added to the Forest collection. By the end of the summer
(which was the 3rd field season this had been ongoing), the Forest had a
complete catalogue, with accompanying maps, of not only all the potential
outcrops, but also all of the fossil localities (not data for scraps,
but indicated by quantity in the report), with major finds
pinpointed.
All public lands are supposed to have done/be doing
this, in order for the administration to know what fossil resources they have in
their area, where not to build pipelines/roads/dams, and also to help law
enforcement in terms of fossil poaching. A lot easier to stop poachers if you
know the likely places for them to be. As for accessibility, I'm not too sure. I
think that they are available to people associated with museums, but I kind of
doubt they'd be really willing to give out that information to just anyone
who walked in the doors.
I'd disagree with HP Varner on this one (maybe
because I worked on it, so I'm biased). If we know where localities are, it
a)becomes harder for fossil smugglers to avoid detection b)easier for us to
relocate localities (including old ones; something else that was part of the
project) c)allows you to get an idea of what the outcrop might be like before
you get there.
I could go on for a while, no doubt, about this,
but I don't want to bore you all to death. I think I shall leave it as it is
(for now ;)).
Peace,
Rob
Student of Geology
P.O. Box 20840 Flagstaff, Az. 86011 http://dinodomain.com http://www.cafepress.com/robsdinos AIM: TarryAGoat |