Fruita Friday 8

Sadly this piece of art is no longer with us. It was originally painted on the back of a downtown building but was removed in ~2008(?).

Photos from "Roadside Dinosaurs/RoadsideArchitecture.com"

Former Location: 122 East Aspen Street, facing the Fruita Fitness Center. 

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Fruita Friday 7

Not really art, but how often can you stand on the corner of the Jurassic and the Cretaceous??

Location: Corner of Jurassic Avenue and Cretaceous Street, in front of the Comfort Inn and behind El Tapatio Restaurant.  

View Larger Map
© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Fruita Friday 6

Painting on the northeast side of a downtown Fruita building (artist unknown)

Location: The northeast corner of Mulberry and Aspen Streets. 

View Larger Map
© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Fruita Friday 5

Grrrreta can be found in the Fruita City Circle. It was named by local school children in 2000 and she is decorated for Christmas with a giant Santa hat and the Grinch hanging out of her mouth. 

Location: Fruita Park Circle (see map below) 

View Larger Map
© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Fruita Friday 4

"Stegosaurus" bike rack

Location: 220 East Aspen Street, in front of Carquest Auto Parts

View Larger Map
© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Fruita Friday 3

Ceratopsian bench, artist unknown

Location: Corner of South Plum Street and Highway 6 & 50, behind City Market. 

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Fruita Friday 2

Ceratosaurus, the official city dinosaur of Fruita.

Location: Corner of East Aspen Street and North Park Square. It can be found in front of Christie Burns Photography at 122 E. Aspen Unit A and across the street from Turn the Page Used Book Store. 

View Larger Map

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Fruita Friday 1

For some time now I have wanted to feature the Paleo Art found in the Grand Valley of Western Colorado, the City of Fruita particularly. This area of Colorado has a high concentration of artist and you can see the geology and paleontology of our area often reflected in the many art pieces produced and on display. Over the next few weeks I will feature different pieces of art and note where they can be found, in case you would ever like to stop and visit.

Week 1: "Dinosaur Diamond" by Gary L Hauschulz

Location: on the north side of East Aspen Street (near the corner of Mulberry Street), across the street from Aspen Street Coffee and a few doors down from Turn the Page Used Book Store.

View Larger Map

The Dinosaur Diamond also refers to the Dinosaur Diamond National Scenic Byway, of which Fruita/Grand Junction is the eastern corner of the Diamond.

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Misinformation regarding the Paleontological Resources Preservation bill

Sorry for the disappearing act. I have been pretty busy with work this week. A story in my local news paper is spreading some incorrect information that I wanted to point out really fast. The story that came out on Monday is entitled "Paleontology provisions threaten bill that includes Dominguez conservation area" - big mean paleontology is picking on the poor conservation area eh? No. Not really. The story is referring to S. 22, Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009; Title IV, Subtitle D - Paleontological Resources Preservation, Sec. 6301 - 6312. The author of the story states "Salazar [Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo, the brother of our new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar] said language restricting the recovery of arrowheads, fossils and other historical materials from public lands has deeply divided the House committee entrusted with approving the public-lands bill....He said unless the House can muster up a supermajority to suspend House rules and remove the language, the bill’s passage could be delayed or the entire bill could be left in limbo.

“It could be put on the back burner for who knows how long,” Salazar said....The provisions would require a permit to remove any fossils from public lands or Indian reservations and could, Salazar said, bar members of the public from searching for arrowheads or other items."

This is where I get upset. Obviously John Salazar has either a) not read the legislation or b) does not understand the difference between fossils and arrowheads, paleontology and archaeology. Either way, it is just flat out NOT GOOD!! Contrary to what is implied in the article, "arrowheads" and "historical materials" are not mentioned anywhere in the paleo bill. Also, permits will not be required to collect fossils on Indian lands by this act; in fact, Indian lands are specifically exempt from the act. Despite what the article states, permits are already required to remove significant fossils and the bill calls for codification of existing rules that allow for hobby collection of fossils.

It would be nice if the author of the article first read the legislation and pointed out these things himself. Just as much as it would have been nice if Rep. Salazar had read it (or understood it)….or if the editor of the paper had checked the facts of the story. Is this to much to ask??

So, instead of just bitching about this here, I decided to try and do something. I wrote the author and pointed out the mistakes/misinformation/misrepresentations, sent him a copy of the legislation, and suggested several paleontologist who are very knowledgeable about the bill that he could speak to if he would like to pursue the story. His response was “Thanks” and a ‘my bad’ on the “…Indians lands provision in the bill.” I appreciate his acknowledgment of my letter. I hope he will take the time to address these issues in print. I will also be sending a letter to the editor (since my phone call was not returned). If you would like to do the same, you can find his contact information here. [edit - the managing editor contacted me this morning (Wednesday) and we had a nice conversation about the bill, the problems with the story, ect.. and she said they would make corrections]

A lot of hard work has gone into getting this bill where it is now. It would be sad to see bad press and misinterpretations of the facts keep this bill from passing though the House. I really want to encourage anyone interested in paleo to please read this bill!! If you can not reach it at this link, please let me know and I will email a PDF of the information to you. It will be so much better if we are all informed about the facts and can tell others the details.

I hope the work of anti-paleo-bill lobbyist does not pay off. My *sources* tell me that there is a large group of paleontology enthusiast and paleontologist who (for reasons incomprehensible to me) want to keep this bill from passing. As far as I can tell from public comments, it has to do with a lack of understanding for what the bill is going to do [see my previous post on this for the details]. Lets hope that having money for heavy duty lobbying also does not derail this bill. I encourage you to write your congressperson and ask them to support this bill!

Thanks for reading!


© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Surviving the Piceance Basin

I have been out several days this month with a local environmental consulting firm walking seismic lines in the Piceance Basin, which is north of Rifle and southwest of Meeker, Colorado. We are walking these lines in search of any fossils that may be present before the official seismic work begins, in which (I assume) they are looking for gas. I have never seen so many bright orange and pink flags in my entire life! Basically imagine the map below with lines going all the way across it from the northeast to southwest, about 1/4 of a mile apart from one another. My job is to follow orange flags planted along those lines, and look for fossils while I walk those lines. We do this (as far as I can tell and have been told) to try and show where significant sites are that should be avoided and to help protect any fossils that are already present on the surface. A story about the area in the Denver Post states "The Piceance could end up being the biggest natural gas field in North America," said Fred Julander, owner of Denver-based Julander Energy and a long-time observer of Colorado's natural-gas sector. Julander estimates the basin's total gas accumulation could be as much as 100 tcf -- enough to supply Colorado's needs for 280 years at current consumption rates."



The terrain is quite interesting. It is mostly covered in pinion, juniper and sage, but every now and then there are open spots. You sometimes get relatively flatter sections, but often it is up and down, and up and down, and up and down.....you get the idea. Below is a picture of the terrain. Yes, I realize, it could be worse. But the last thing I love to do first thing in the morning is scale the side of a steep cliff ;)


View Larger Map

So far the only fossils I have found have been fossil plants, mostly from the Green River Formation, although I did find a awesome leaf today that looks like it is from the Uinta Formation.

I have had many furry animal encounters, as I seem to have a gift for stirring up Elk out of the brush. Chipmunks, squirrels, deer, lizards, horny toads, more flies and gnats than I can count and one random horse have been the majority of my sightings.








Today I had the luck to be caught out in a thunder storm with lightning and to get to chance a truck tire. Always fun. The truck got a flat as I was being dropped off to start my line, so we had to get that changed really fast. Then, after walking for 45 min or so, the rain started to move in. It would not have been such a big deal if it had not had quite a bit of lightening in it. And since I have that important thing coming up in a few weeks (just a little over 2 weeks!), I found a nice ledge to hunker down under, which was what everyone else on the job was doing. I waited there for about an hour for it to clear out, then continued on my way, only to have another storm come up behind me and force me out of the field for the day. In true field fashion, as soon as I reached the vehicle, the weather cleared.


(above) My "cave" I hid in during the storm. (below) Hiding from the rain, rocking out my orange vest.

It has been nice to get out and walk some, and getting to look for fossils is a plus. Unfortunatly I have so many irons in the fire and other projects that need attention that I am home bound Friday. This is also a good thing though, since I just spent the last 6 months away from John and the cats and do not want to make this a regular occurrence.

More pictures...

So that is the update from here. I know I need to return multiple emails and get back to some of you on may different things. Sorry for the delay! And a quick tip of the hat to Bryan for the title idea.