Park News

National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Pictograph Restoration Completed

In June, John Day Fossil Beds Superintendent Jim Hammett announced that the National Park Service began restoring the American Indian pictographs in Picture Gorge that were damaged by vandals with spray paint last February. The restoration was completed in about two weeks. In cooperation with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs and the Umatilla Tribe, the National Park Service contracted with Claire Dean, owner of Dean and associates Conservation Services, to complete the restoration. “We were fortunate that Ms. Dean lives in Portland and that she could fit this work into her busy schedule. The Pictographs in Picture Gorge are an important cultural resource and are enjoyed by many of our visitors. Even more importantly, they are tremendously important to our neighboring Indian tribes whose forefathers lived here and for which Picture Gorge was a major thoroughfare. We were anxious to get them restored as soon as possible,” said Hammett.

Ms. Dean is one of the few qualified conservators capable of doing this type of work. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of conservation and has worked all over the world. With the help of two other technicians, the spray paint was removed chemically, though due to the porous nature of the rock, a shadow may be visible for some time.

The National Park Service, charged by Congress with preserving natural and cultural resources, has taken the vandalism very seriously. Both state and federal charges against the individuals responsible are pending.

Conservator working on Pictograph Restoration

Rock Creek Diversion Upgrade Will Be A Boon to Fish

During the month of August, the Monument will complete a renovation of the Rock Creek Diversion culmi-nating several years of planning and addressing a problem that began with the use of the diversion in the 1890’s by the Officer family. Currently, the fish travel nearly a half-mile before they reach an antiquated fish screen and are directed into the John Day River.

The Grant Soil and Water Conservation District has been an exceptional partner in the new diversion effort, helping with the surveying, engineering, obtaining permits, and finding the equipment and supplies needed.

Throughout the John Day Basin, the push-up or stacked rock style diversions have been very common. Usually by mid-summer they are as tall as possible, lined with rolled plastic or boards, and are diverting a majority of the water from the streams and river into leaky ditches.

Fish passage for salmonids(steelhead and Chinook salmon) along with the local smaller fish like sculpins, red-sided shiners, dace, and lamprey eels is virtually impossible with the dams in place. This has led to problems for these fish species especially with the recent listing of the Middle Columbia Evolutionary Significant Unit of the steelhead as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Starting in the early 1990’s, the Grant SWCD designed a new style of diversion that is made with pre-formed concrete forms, lay-down stanchions, and year-round fish passage sections.

Following several field visits, it was determined that this style of diversion would be the best alternative for restoring fish passage in Rock Creek. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Screen Shop will come and place a newly designed fish screen along the upper portion of Rock Creek Ditch in order to quickly return any fish entering the ditch back to Rock Creek.

2002 Biological Inventory
Since the summer of 2001, the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument has been conducting a first-ever biological inventory in order to find and verify over 90 percent of the wildlife species living in the Monument.

This spring, Alan St. John and Tom Rodhouse were hired through a cooperative agreement with Idaho State University. They will be spending much of the summer traversing the 3 units of the monument.

Alan brings a renowned background in locating and identifying both reptiles and amphibians, having just finished a field guide, “Reptiles of the Northwest.” He has already found long-toed salamanders and whiptail lizards, both new species, and is on the lookout for several other species.

Tom recently received his Masters degree from OSU and is in charge of collecting information on all of the birds and bats flying over the monument as well as trapping for the many different species of rodents. He has worked morning, noon, and night in order to try and locate all of the different species. He has added several birds and rodents to the species lists and is finding a very interesting collection of bat species. He hopes to spark interest in future studies of bats in order to locate the maternal roosts of the various species.

Historic Orchard has a new generation to admire…

The aging fruit trees at the Cant Ranch have new saplings to celebrate. Ten “historic variety” trees (including Gravenstein, Black Gilliflower, Yellow Transparent, McIntosh, Newton Pippin, Snow-Fameuse, Spitzenburg, and Bartlett) were planted this spring. Each of the varieties was developed before 1870, with some going back to 1700. They are all on standard or ¾ size rootstock to maintain the historic look of the orchard. Plantings in the past met with mixed results. This year more steps were taken to assure the future of the fruit orchard. Soil was replaced prior to planting.

Each tree was staked, and caged, the baby trees have been carefully tended, and survival is a green and strong one hundred percent. Next year the Natural Resources staff intends to double the trees planted. Next year’s plantings will include apricot and plum, along with more pear and apple trees. The fruit from the orchard is available to visitors for immediate personal use. Climbing on the trees to get fruit is not allowed. Deer are in the orchard most nights to clean up the fruit that fall to the ground. View the progress of time by visiting the older trees. Then, be sure to tell the old trees how you admire the new “historic” saplings.

MUSEUM/PALEO NEWS

The Paleontology Division has a number of seasonal employees and interns making up a field crew, a museum crew, and a preparation crew. Seasonal paleontologists Karon Decker and Amy Morrison are working on cyclic prospecting in Blue Basin. They are also on hand to collect fossils that are uncovered by trail crew members during the Island in Time interpretive trail bridge construction project. Museum Technician Chris Schierup and interns Rob McAfee and Andrew Miller have been working with Curator Scott Foss to catalog, inventory, stripe, and stabilize the specimens that have been accessioned into the park’s collection over the past several years. Seasonal Preparator Sally Johnson has been working with Preparator Matt Smith to mold, cast, and conserve specimens, while intern Amy Poff is illustrating fossils and other paleo-related subjects.

Museum Technician Lia Vella has cataloged the newly-donated Whistler library and is working on other database management projects. Various research partnerships are continuing this summer, with visits from Samantha Hopkins from UC- Berkeley and Matt Kohn from University of South Carolina. Ted Fremd will be spending three weeks in Hungary doing research in the field and museums with scientists there.Another big project has been the construction and exhibit planning process for the new Thomas Condon Paleontology Center. Many staff members participated in the exhibit planning process with the High Desert Museum in Bend. Matt Smith, Ted Fremd, and volunteer Skylar Rickabaugh traveled to the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley to borrow fossils collected by J. C. Merriam and others during past expeditions to the John Day. These will be conserved and displayed in the new exhibits.

Monument welcomes new employees

Alicia Bowler our new chief of Administration, and Kendall Derby, Prescribed Fire Specialist are both friendly and welcome additions to our staff.

Over the past fifteen years, Alicia has worked for the U. S. Forest Service, where she functioned as a Contracting Officer Representative for the Silviculture Department at the Prairie City Ranger District.

Alicia enjoys working in an office environment as well as in the field. Fortunately for John Day Fossil Beds, Alicia accepted a job with the National Park Service last April. “My new job as Administration Technician is a great learning experience! says Alicia “ I have had a wonderful time getting to know the other employees that work at the John Day Fossil Beds.”Alicia has two children: Jason, twenty-eight years old and Corina twenty-one years old. Her hobbies include hiking, aerobics, and reading a good novel.

For the coming year, Alicia looks forward to hiking the trails at the John Day Fossil Beds and watching the construction of the new Paleontology Center.

Kendall Derby is the new wildland and prescribed fire person at the Monument. His background is in wildland fire management, range ecology and forestry. Kendall has lived in Dayville for the past six years. Last year he coordinated the reintroduction of fire to 1,200 acres adjacent to Picture Gorge. This year both Painted Hills and Sheep Rock Unit (Middle Mountain) have prescribed fires scheduled. The planned fires involve cooperation with private and federal land managers. The planned fires will cover nearly 9,300 acres.

Kendall is also part of the “weed buster” crew at the Monument, that is working to reduce the invasion of noxious invasive weeds. Kendall's hard work here has been stupendous; John Day Fossil Beds is very lucky to have someone with Kendall's expertise on board.

New Junior Park Rangers
Alexander Baker, Everett, WA
Mark Baker, Grants Pass, OR
Margaret J.Bohman, Port Angeles, WA
Sharon Blum, Mesa, AZ
Beatrix Rose Conti, Portland, OR
Logan Mace Emlet, Coos Bay, OR
Abby Folsom, Everett, WA
Anlya Grace Folsom, Evertt, WA
Joshua Folsom, Everett, WA
Elizabeth Hinkley, Bainbridge, NY
Rebecca Hinkley, Bainbridge, NY
Valentin Klug, White Plains, NY
Konstantin Klug, White Plains, NY
Sean D. Kramer, Sunnyvale, CA
Sarah Kramer, Sunnyvale, CA
Jesse Kune, Grants Pass, OR
Samuel A. Maasz, Montello, WI
Alan C. Monkmen, Everett, WA
Marc Neumann, Italy
Morgan Ramsey, Seattle,WA
Belinda Rose ,Washington Portland, OR
Natasha Russi, Lafayette, CO
Tanya Russi, Lafayette, CO
Joshua Smith, Whittier, CA
Sarah Smith, Whittier, CA
Alyson C. Sternberg, Santa Rosa, CA
Perry Washington, Portland, OR

Congratulations new Junior Park Rangers!

Otter Sighted Near Visitor Center…
They’re Back! During the last week in July a visitor came into the visitor center rather excited, after hiking our new trail from the center down to the John Day River. “I saw an otter!” she repeated over and over, and she was absolutely positive about the sighting. She estimated that the entire otter was about 24 inches long.

This is a rare sighting along the Sheep Rock Unit stretch of the John Day River. Otters used to be plentiful up until the mid-1800’s, as evidenced by reports from explorer and trapper Peter Skene Ogden. In one expedition along the John Day River near Dayville, in January of 1826, his group reported trapping 185 beaver and sixteen otter.

Maintenance Projects for 2002…
Maintenance has numerous projects this year beyond the normal day to day maintenance of our facilities. They will include some new Picnic Tables and Trash Cans, Trail Brushing and Repair, Foundation under the Goose Rock Quarters, Piping of the Cant Ranch Ditch and New Trail Bridges in Blue Basin on the “Island in Time Trail.
The “Island in Time Trail” currently has 13 wood foot-bridges that do not have hand rails. While there is a little rote in the wood, but the primary concern was the lack of protective railings. Some of the bridges are as much as 8 feet above the drainage, which could create a nasty fall. In order to keep the long term maintenance needs down we are going to install steel bridges. Two obstacles arose with the selection to go to metal. There were no modular bridges that could be found that would allow the parts to be packed in and assembled in place. And no access for heavy equipment to haul them in and place them, short of a large helicopter at over $8000.00 per hour. The solution was to design a modular bridge. The design utilizes steel purlins commonly used in steel buildings and many custom made brackets and members to allow them to be bolted together in place. This leaves the heaviest single piece at 156 pounds, allowing them to be carried in by hand or on a small tractor that can negotiate the trial. The total weight of all the components to build the bridges is about 65,000 pounds. Just the movement of parts to their location is a large undertaking.

The engineering has come back on the design allowing a loading of 8 tons per bridge. The bridges will be assembled starting at the base of the trail and work our way up to allow for sufficient access for hauling in the next bridge. In most cases there will be public access to the trail around each bridge under construction, only if we can do so without causing an adverse impact to the area.

In the end we will have foot-bridges that will last 50 years or more and provide safe access for the users of the trail. We are also trying to make the trail more accessible to handicapped. The assent of the trail will require a mountain or rough terrain chair, but finally remove some of the obstacles that prevented some of that access in the past.

All of this combined with the construction of the New Thomas Condon Visitors Center and Paleo Labs, will make this the busiest year in Fossil Beds history for maintenance staff. While the Visitors Center is a contract that normally shouldn’t effect maintenance, there will be many things for everyone to work around, making everyone’s job a little more difficult and time consuming.

Hope everyone has a chance to come out and observe the progress on these projects over the next year!

Ed Pitman, Chief of Maintenance

National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Address
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
HC 82 Box 126,
Kimberly, Oregon, 97848

Phone
541-987-2333

Fax
541-987-2336

E-mail
joda_interpretation@nps.gov

Website
www.nps.gov/joda

Editor
Sarah Herve

Chief of Interpretation
John Fiedor

Contributors
Alicia Bowler
Kendall Derby
John Fiedor
Jim Hammett
Ken Hyde
Sue Vanier
Lia Vella,

Comments? Write to:
Jim Hammett
Superintendent

John Day Fossil Beds NM
32651 HWY 19
Kimberly OR 97848

What’s New At the Bookstore?
It’s summer, the busiest time for the fossil beds. At the visitor center bookstore, we have added many new and interesting books to our shelves. “Walking With Prehistoric Beasts” is a dramatic selection that depicts the Age of Mammals in full color with computer-generated illustrations and imaginative scenarios putting you, the reader, into a prehistoric setting. We also have stickers that complement the book.

To highlight our geographic area, we are now carrying “Exploring Oregon’s Wild Areas,” a great backpacking, biking, hiking and climbing guide; “100 Hikes in Oregon” which has listed local areas of interest to hikers; “Reptiles of the Northwest,” and “Bugs of Washington and Oregon” to help identify creatures great and small in both states. We also carry, “Roadside History of Oregon” which gives a glimpse at Oregon’s cultural past.

As for new paleo related books, “Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives” and, “Fossil Horses” have been a welcome addition. We have also started carrying one of the well-known evolutionary books “Beak of the Finch.”

We have a good selection of books about the Age of Mammals, the geology of our area, and current and ancient flora. Our great selection of maps covers all of Eastern Oregon. We have slides of scenery and paleobiomes depicting environments of different geologic eras, postcards of each unit at the park, as well as postcards of some of the well-known fossils from our collection. We are always looking for new items of interest-- books, CDs, posters. Please call Sue Vanier at the bookstore if you would like to purchase any of our sales items or if you have something you think would enhance our interpretive goals here at John Day Fossil Beds.

The National Park service cares for the special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.

Postage and production of the paper edition of this newsletter was funded by The Northwest Interpretive Association, in cooperation with the National Park Service.