Joggins Fossil Institute Wraps Up Successful 5th Anniversary of UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscription

JOGGINS FOSSIL INSTITUTE WRAPS UP SUCCESSFUL 5^TH ANNIVERSARY OF UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE INSCRIPTION

As the official operational season draws to a close, the Joggins Fossil Institute reflects back on a successful season of increased visitation, programming and 5^th anniversary celebrations.

July 7, 2013 was the official anniversary date that the Joggins Fossil Cliffs was inscribed on to the UNESCO World Heritage list.  Given this, the Joggins Fossil Institute (the non-profit, charitable organization that co-manages the Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Joggins Fossil Centre) looked at the entire season as a time to celebrate and reflect on the last five years. 

The signature event of the season was their inaugural fundraiser called “Cocktail Party in the Carboniferous” (Carboniferous is the time period in earth’s history the UNESCO site represents).  They also hosted a well-attended community BBQ and “celebrity beach sweep”, featured a summer-long art exhibition by Québecois artist Bernard Pelletier who has created paintings of all of Canada’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites commissioned by Parks Canada, hosted a monthly educational series and weekly kids summer camps.  The season also included their annual Mother’s Day Brunch, Father’s Day Lobster Dinner, Adopt-A-Highway cleanup and Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.  

The final event of the season will be a Children’s Halloween Party on Saturday, October 26, 2013 featuring the Maritime Reptile Zoo from Halifax.  The party will be from 1:00 – 3:00 PM and kids (and parents) are encouraged to come in costume.  The cost to attend is $7 for a child and adult, $12 for a family of 3 and $15 for a family of 4 or more.  Kids must be accompanied by an adult.  The annual Christmas “Sidewalk Sale” & Lunch will be held on Sunday, December 15^th from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm.  There will be up to 50% off selected items in the gift shop, complimentary tea, coffee and cookies and soup, chowder and biscuits available for purchase.  

The Institute has also partnered with the Gillespie House Inn, Black Rock Bistro and Fundy Geological Museum this fall and created a “Fall Fossil Finder” overnight package.  The package is available until October 31^st and can been booked by contacting the Gillespie House Inn in Parrsboro at 1-877-901-3196. The package includes overnight accommodations, breakfast and dinner and admission to both Fundy Geological Museum and Joggins Fossil Centre.

In addition to events and programming throughout the season, revenue from paid visitation and educational programming increased by 20% this year.  “In a province where tourism has seen some decline and little growth over the last few years, these numbers are very encouraging and great to see” commented, Stephanie Viera, Operations Manager for the Institute.

Even though the main operational season ends October 31^st, the Institute welcomes inquiries for school group or meeting group visits year round.  For additional information about the Centre and any upcoming events, call 902-251-2727 or visit http://www.jogginsfossilcliffs.net.  

Halloween Party at the Joggins Fossil Centre!

Mark your calendars for October 26...Maritime Reptile Zoo is coming to help us celebrate Halloween this year. Remember to come in costume!

Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up Review!

The Joggins Fossil Institute partnered with River Hebert Elementary School once again this year to participate in the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up. We cleaned the beach around Lower Cove area and are pleased to announce that there was less trash this year than last!

Thank-you to Ms. Dickinson and her grade 5/6 class, chaperones, and other volunteers who helped to make this year's clean-up a success. We also appreciate the support of the County of Cumberland (for donating gloves and bags) and the River Hebert Co-op (for donating food to our BBQ for volunteers).

Join us again this year for the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up!

New Research at Joggins on Green Crabs!

Check out the research summary below by Amie MacDonald, an Honour’s student at Mount Allison University. Amie’s work is supervised by Drs. Diana Hamilton (MTA) and David Drolet (DFO/MTA) and is also in collaboration with others at DFO and UNB.

The European Green Crab (Carcinus maenas) is an invasive species that has recently been observed on the upper mudflats of the Bay of Fundy. We are conducting a survey on three mudflats and three nearby rocky intertidal areas to assess the current status of the green crab population in this region in such ecosystems, and to determine whether it is an established breeding population. To conduct the surveys, we set out crab-specific traps for 24 hours every two weeks at all six sites (one of which is Joggins). At the end of the 24-hour period, we collect the traps and identify, sex, and measure all captured crabs. We also check females for eggs. Since the green crab is a relatively new arrival to the mudflats, we do not know what effects it will have on the ecosystem, but the potential for serious impact exists because green crabs have negatively affected soft-substrate habitats elsewhere. Through this research, we aim to gain a better understanding of the local green crab population, and to gather data that will aid in the development of management strategies, should they become necessary.

Educational Series #3 - this Saturday!

Nova Scotia Youth Conservation Corps Program: Supporting Local Projects

July 8, 2013

The Joggins Fossil Institute, in partnership with the River Hebert & Area Garden Club and Clean Nova Scotia are pleased to announce approval of an Nova Scotia Youth Conservation Corps (NSYCC) project. Funding for this project included providing for employment for two local youth interns this summer.  The two youth interns will be assisting both the Garden Club and the Joggins Fossil Institute on a number of environmental initiatives, including establishing several Pollinator Gardens and contributing to natural landscaping and native vegetation planting  in local public spaces. 

The overarching goal of the Nova Scotia Youth Conservation Corps project is to contribute to the local environment, but also to provide the participating interns with positive work experiences and to build skills related to working in the environmental field.  According to the RH Garden Club manager Su Morin, the program not only provides a great employment benefit to local youth in an area, where student jobs are scarce, but is a great way of contributing to our local environmental health.  For the Joggins Fossil Institute, this program provides an opportunity to maintain and further develop the natural landscaping initiatives.  The youth interns working at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO World Heritage site will also provide educational programming and conduct community outreach which will lead to a greater appreciation of the natural heritage both past and present.

This project is funded by Clean Nova Scotia.

Rainy day project for our youth interns Zack and Josh as they start planning the Pollinator Garden.

Joggins Fossil Institute Celebrates 5th Anniversary of UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscription!

JOGGINS FOSSIL INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 5^TH ANNIVERSARY OF UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE INSCRIPTION

It was July 7, 2008 that Joggins Fossil Cliffs became Canada’s 15^th UNESCO World Heritage Site.  July 2013 marks the 5^th anniversary of this significant milestone.

To celebrate, the Joggins Fossil Institute; the non-profit, charitable organization that manages the Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Joggins Fossil Centre, will be hosting additional programming and events throughout the year.  

The highlighted event will be our inaugural fundraiser on Saturday, July 6^th, 2013 called “Cocktail Party in the Carboniferous” (Carboniferous is the time period in earth’s history the UNESCO site represents).  The event runs from 7:00 – 9:00 PM at the Joggins Fossil Centre and will include a toast on the beach of the Cliffs by a designate of the office of Honourable Dr. Leonard Preyra’s office, Nova Scotia Minister of Communities, Culture and Heritage.  It will feature the opening of an art exhibition by Québecois artist Bernard Pelletier who has created paintings of all of Canada’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites commissioned by Parks Canada.  This exhibition of Pelletier paintings will be on display at the Joggins Fossil Centre until September.  In addition there will be a silent auction of local art and gift packages, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.  Funds raised will go towards research and educational initiatives of the Joggins Fossil Institute.

The weekend doesn't stop there.  On Sunday, July 7^th, the official anniversary of UNESCO inscription; there will be a BBQ from 12:30-1:30 PM and community “beach sweep” beginning at 2:00 PM.  The “beach sweep” is a chance for the community to engage in exploring the beach with guest scientists and researchers looking for new fossils and discoveries.   We encourage the community to celebrate with us!

These events are in addition to a series of educational UNESCO World Heritage Site “Walk & Talks with guest researchers, a father’s day lobster boil, and kid’s summer camps and babysitting course,  UN day volunteer appreciation lunch, “turkey trot” beach walk and Halloween party.

For tickets to the fundraising event or further information on 5^th Anniversary events and programming, call 902-251-2727 or visit http://www.jogginsfossilcliffs.net. 

Purchase tickets here to our "Cocktail Party in the Carboniferous"!

Dr. Martin Gibling reflects...

Our first educational series ("Walk and Talk") event took place this past Saturday. Dr. Martin Gibling hosted a hardy crew of interested participants on the chilly beach. Dr. Gibling and his students have long been researching the Site and he is our guest "blogger" for the month of May:

When Sir Charles Lyell visited Joggins in the 1840s, he was stunned by what he found. He had earlier published his classic text “Principles of Geology”, which was carried on board the H.M.S. Beagle by the young Charles Darwin as he embarked in 1831 on his momentous voyage around the world. Nevertheless, although Lyell was widely regarded as the leading geologist of his time, he was unprepared for what he found at Joggins. Joggins was the type historical example par excellence of the Carboniferous world. Or, in the words of my colleague John Calder, Joggins was to Charles Lyell what the Galapagos Islands were to Charles Darwin.  

What made Joggins so special for Lyell? You have to stand on the shore at Lower Cove to appreciate how Joggins startled that eminent Victorian geologist. From Lower Cove, you can look across the tidal waters of Chignecto Bay to the huge line of cliffs that run for more than a kilometer around Coalmine Point to Joggins village. If it is a sunny afternoon, you can see the gently dipping layers of Carboniferous strata lighted up in the cliff face -- nearly a thousand metres of rock measured bed by bed and representing perhaps a million years of geological time.

Gazing at the Fossil Cliffs brightened in this way, Lyell must suddenly have realized that each bed represents the landscape of the Carboniferous Earth at a moment in time. Originally laid down as soft sand, mud or peat, the layers were buried as the land subsided, became rock over eons of time, were tilted by earth movements, and finally were brought back up to the Earth’s surface, to be etched out by wind and tide to form the Fossil Cliffs.

I can picture Sir Charles tripping over a boulder on the beach as he gazed at the cliffs, cursing, and simultaneously exulting at his sudden insight. Why hadn’t he appreciated this before? Each bed surface was a landscape upon which the rain fell, upon which the fabulous plants of the Carboniferous era grew, and over which extinct arthropods and tetrapods lumbered. The Fossil Cliffs were a record of hundreds of such successive landscapes, each active for a short time and then buried by new sediment and a new landscape. Few places in the world yielded such a remarkable record. 

Today I am walking from Lower Cove towards Joggins. Here in the cliffs is a thin black layer of coal – formerly a peat, a mass of wetland roots and plants. On top of the dipping coal seam stands an upright tree trunk, still preserved where it grew rooted within the peat. Perhaps the bones of the world’s earliest reptile, Hylonomus, lie within the once-hollow trunk, as Lyell himself discovered where trees had fallen from the cliffs.

Here is a former soil, marked by the presence of cracks, dark organic litter, and the large roots of the lycopsid trees. A forest once grew on the soil, but only the sediment into which the roots were thrust has survived.

And here is a river channel – a deep, narrow cut visible in the cliffs and filled with sand and mud laid down when the river was active. After a while, the flow must have broken through the banks to gouge out a new course, leaving this reach abandoned. On the beach below the river layers, a block bears the trackway of a gigantic arthropleurid – perhaps the largest arthropod ever to have existed. The creature must have wandered down into the abandoned channel to search for drifted leaves or stranded logs.

Perhaps it is imagination or just wishful thinking, but I find that I can actively turn the layer into a landscape in my mind without much effort. I see the groves of horsetails and the huge lycopsid trees moving in the wind. There is an arthropleurid proceeding between the trunks, its multiple legs moving in waves on either side, oblivious of my presence. And do I hear flowing water as the river makes its way to the sea?

Approaching Coalmine Point, I halt in amazement. There, high in the cliff, is the edge of a former river channel, and on its bank stand two upright lycopsid trees, the broken-off trunks still more than a metre high and tilted towards the channel. The trees seem to be conspirators of the forest community, whispering together of life in the landscapes of the Carboniferous.

-Dr. Martin Gibling, Dalhousie University

The first "Walk and Talk" series begins this coming Saturday!

Earth Day

The Joggins Fossil Institute celebrated Earth Day by joining with the River Hebert Elementary School to help clean-up the community on April 22. In 1.5 hours, and nearly 50 garbage bags later, much of Highway 242 was cleared of litter. There is still more to do and watch this space for our next clean-up date to finish the job. We need YOUR help to keep our community clean! 

This is the third year the Joggins Fossil Institute has cleaned up Highway 242 and, as always, coffee cups and cigarette butts were the most common item found. We hope for a future where we celebrate Earth Day without litter or the necessity of litter clean-ups.

See the article in the Amherst Daily News: http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/Local/2013-04-22/article-3225101/Students-sweep-the-ditches-for-Earth-Day/1

Many thanks to the River Hebert Elementary School for their participation in this event and all the other volunteers who came out yesterday - the day was a success because of all your hard work and support! We would also like to thank Earth Day Canada, Clean Nova Scotia, the NS Department of Transportation and the Adopt-A-Highway program for supporting this event.

2013 Season Opening!

We had a beautiful day at the Joggins Fossil Centre to celebrate the opening of our 5th season!

Face-painting, kite-making and flying, a BBQ, and beach excursion were popular events and we were so pleased to see so many friendly faces. A HUGE thank-you to Edna Boon and Pat Thomas for their artistic skills and to Pam Harrison for donating kite kits!

+

March Break at the Joggins Fossil Centre!

Looking for something to do over March Break?

The Joggins Fossil Centre has fun and educational activities planned - join us for March 12, 13, and 14 from 10am - 2:30pm.

Activities include fossil fun, beach glass crafts, card-making, gardening, step-dancing, orienteering, zumba, and more! The cost is only $5 per child per day and that included snacks and lunch. Please register by Friday, March 8 by emailing info@jogginsfossilcliffs.net or calling 251-2727.