Agreement with Caltrans signed

Museum Scientist Ken Finger prepares a display featuring leaves found during construction on the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel.

In our last issue of the UCMP News, we mentioned the "Fourth Bore project" — the construction of a fourth bore of the Caldecott tunnel, which is yielding a variety of vertebrate, invertebrate, plant, and microfossils. By law, these fossils are required to be deposited in a repository, in this case UCMP, and receive proper preparation, conservation, and curation. Due to recent budget cuts, the UCMP preparation lab would not have been fully staffed to manage such a project. Thus, we are pleased to announce that a one-year agreement has been signed with Caltrans that will provide funding to ensure that these collections, records, and data are suitably protected, managed, and preserved for the public good.

With Mark Goodwin serving as PI on the project, UCMP will hire a Senior Museum Scientist to manage the prep lab and supervise both graduate and undergraduate students to do fossil preparation and curation. Funding is also available for equipment, IT support, and the development of a website for public outreach and education related to the Caldecott Tunnel Project and the fossils collected. This new partnership between UCMP and Caltrans will increase our efforts to manage and preserve paleontological resources and California's fossil heritage across the state.

Photo by Josh Frankel, UCMP