Welcome to the Western Interior Paleontological Society

First Symposium meeting

March 10, 7:00

Ready Foods

2645 W 7th Ave
Denver, CO 80204

The WIPS 25th Anniversary Video Committee is busy producing the half hour DVD video program to be included in the Society’s 25th Anniversary celebration. The video will include video, photographs, and other visual and audio representations of WIPS members and their activities over the past 25 years. The committee has need of photographs, slides, or video of activities. If you have images from any of the following activities please contact any member of the committee or submit them to Lou Taylor, the committee chair.

Teepee Buttes Florissant

Kremmling Delta, Utah

Petrified Forest, Wyoming Petrified Forest, Arizona

Garden Park Chadron, Nebraska

Flat Tops Kansas Chalk Beds

Manitou Formation Purgatoire Dinosaur Tracks

Hagerman National Monument Medicine Bow or the Weege Allosaurus

Also, we’re looking for images of early WIPS auctions, the Bakker Talk at CSM, and other activities you may have photographed

We prefer digital images, but can scan photographs and sides. Video can be videotape (VCS, 8mm, or DVM format) or digital. We make no promises about your submission making it into the final video, but all contributions will be viewed for that possibility. Paper photos, slides, and videotapes will be returned.

The deadline for submitting your contribution and possibly included in the video is the April WIPS meeting, April 5, 2010.

Committee Members: Lou Taylor (chair – taylorlh@aol.com, 303-972-8955, 4931 W. Rowland Ave., Littleton, CO 80128), Malcolm Bedell, Jr., Dave Gilpin, Shellie Luallin, Steve Wagner, and Dave Warren.

A workshop lead by Dr. Herbert W. Meyer and Dr. Deborah Woodcock

The Petrified Forest of Sexi, Peru

Check out articles from the Paleo Portal

Teepee Buttes	Florissant
Kremmling	Delta, Utah
Petrified Forest, Wyoming	Petrified Forest, Arizona
Garden Park	Chadron, Nebraska
Flat Tops	Kansas Chalk Beds
Manitou Formation	Purgatoire Dinosaur Tracks
Hagerman National Monument	Medicine Bow or the Weege Allosaurus

If you are not a member and are visiting this web site, we hope that you will join us. Come to some of our meetings and visit with our members. We have excellent speakers, presentations, and socializing starting at 7 pm most first Mondays of the month (September to May) in Ricketson Auditorium at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The doors to the west entrance of the museum will be opened until 7:30. After that they will be locked. These doors have to be guarded while they are unlocked so a WIPS volunteer will be watching the entrance until the program begins. No food or beverages are allowed in this atrium.

For book and literature reviews, articles about paleontology and more, join WIPS and get a subscription to our newsletter, Trilobite Tales.

Next Meeting

Monday, April 5--7:00PM

Emmett Evanoff, University of Northern Colorado
Terry Hiester, Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Things to Do and Not Do During a Field Emergency

I was involved in a major accident in Badlands National Park, South Dakota, on the last day of the summer field season of 2009. While walking out of the field, I was on a narrow game trail above a steep badlands drainage when a gust of wind of over 60 miles per hour hit me on the side, picked me up, and I fell about 60 feet into the drainage. I ended up in a hole formed by a pipe, an underground drainage system that forms at the headwaters of gullies in the badlands. I received a broken left arm, several cracked left ribs, a cracked left lower pelvis, and several broken right ribs. I was not able to get out of the drainage unaided. My field assistant, Terry Heister, helped me get to a stable position in the gully and then went for help. He returned two hours later with over 50 rescuers from Badlands National Park and three local search-and-rescue teams. Because of the steepness of the topography in the area, the rescuers decided to call in a helicopter from the South Dakota Army National Guard to pick me up and fly me the half mile to near where the Fight-For-Life helicopter was waiting. Five hours after the accident and only three hours after the rescue teams arrived, I was in the hospital at Rapid City, South Dakota. The efficiency of the rescue parties was quite remarkable, and the rescue was one of the most involved in the history of Badlands National Park. My perspective on the accident and rescue was quite limited while it was happening, but during my recovery, I was able to learn about the details of what Terry experienced and what was the Park Services’ role in the rescue. From this experience, Terry and I will give you our perspectives on not only what happened, but what you need to think about and do during an emergency. I will also give you the rescuers’ perspective on what information they need and what you should do to help the professionals during a rescue in the field. I extend my greatest appreciation to all those members of the Western Interior Paleontological Society who contacted me in the weeks following the accident. Your calls, cards and e-mails of support gave me great comfort during the two weeks I was in the hospital at Rapid City and the month I was recovering at home. I especially like the bromeliad that was sent to me by the WIPS governing board (it is still blooming!). Thankfully, my recovery has been relatively swift, and this is in large part from the support from all the many people who contacted me. Thank you for your support!

Emmett

Webmaster