Joggins Announced as one of the Top 5 Travel Celebrities for 2009 by the LA Times!

The LA Times has announced where it considers to be the top 29 destinations to visit in 2009 and the Joggins Fossil Cliffs features at a heady number four.

The list, compiled by the newspaper's travel editors, was developed to present alternative places to visit, which would offer American travellers with "compelling" and "uncrowded" sites, which also include sites in; Latvia, Tibet, Vietnam and Poland.

The Joggins Fossil Cliffs is described by the LA Times as "scenic" and a "300 million year old treat". The cliffs are offered as a new and much safer alternative to Mexico (a popular vacation spot for Californians) and have gained their prestigious place on the list by becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 and primarily for their well-preserved fossils. The travel writers for the LA Times recommend that readers "do what many Hollywood movie studios did and go to Canada".

We are pretty confident about the 2009 season, despite widespread global economical nerves, which are giving some destinations the jitters. This article confirms that the province will potentially get a significant number of visitors from the USA, riding on the back of discounted flights between the west coast of the States and Halifax.

This is an exciting time for Joggins, for Cumberland County and indeed for the Province as a whole. The designation of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs on the World Heritage List and the opening of the new Joggins Fossil Centre last year, plus the tremendous amount of global media interest in the site since has been amazing.

www.latimes.com/travel

Joggins Fossil Institute welcomes new Science & Education Coordinator

We are very excited here at the Joggins Fossil Institute. After a long search, we have found the perfect candidate to undertake the immense remit of Science and Education Coordinator - Melissa Grey. BSc MA PhD


Melissa, who will be returning home to the Maritimes from BC, received a PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of British Columbia for her study of evolutionary patterns of bivalves across space and time. She has a strong interest in marine paleontology, conservation, and natural history and has worked for a diverse range of employers including, the Geological Survey of Canada, Project Seahorse, and the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre.

Melissa has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Acadia University and a Master’s degree in Zoology from the University of Guelph.

Taking on this position for the Joggins Fossil Institute is the perfect position for Melissa and we are extremely excited to be able to welcome her onto the small but now perfectly formed team here at Joggins where Melissa will join; Jenna Boon, Director, Melanie Cookson-Carter, Operations Coordinator, Lorna Terrio, Admin Assistant and a very outnumbered Andrew Hanley, Educational Programmer.

It seems that at Joggins, girl power rules!

Welcome to the Joggins Fossil Institute Blog. We would like to use our blog to keep you up to date with discoveries, research, events and opportunities here at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs.

As the snow lays thick on the ground here in early January, we are preparing the centre ready for the 2009 season.

We open on Earth Day (22nd April) and are open every day between 9:30am and 6:00pm right up until Halloween (31st October).

Follow this blog to ensure you have all of the up to date information, which will help you to plan your trip. Follow the link at the bottom of this page for more details on our opening times, admissions, finds and the Joggins Fossil Cliffs themselves.

Our back yard truly is 300,000,000 years old!