• We will be celebrating Nell Shipman’s Birthday on Saturday October 24^th  at 7pm in the Luby Bay Room at Hill’s Resort by showing Nell Shipman movies  that were filmed at Priest Lake in the 1920s. 
• Admission is free.

The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Act Passes both House and Senate and is Headed to the Desk of President Barack Obama for his Signature

• The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Act, part of the omnibus Public Lands Mangement Act of 2009 passed the House today and is pending the signature of President Barack Obama.  The identical bill passed the Senate last week.

About the Trail Legislation

·      In 2001, the National Park Service completed a major Special Resource Study and submitted a report to Congress proposing that an Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail be established. Such a Trail would represent the largest, most systematic, and most cooperative effort yet proposed to bring the dramatic story of the Ice Age Floods to the public’s attention, and this has the potential to bring significant economic and cultural benefits to communities throughout the Northwest.  

·     The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail would essentially be a network of marked touring routes extending across parts of Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, with several special interpretive centers located across the region.

·      The Park Service’s report indicates that, by bringing together many interested parties, an effective interpretive program can be developed within a collaborative structure and at remarkably low cost, despite the extraordinary size of the region. The Trail can also be developed on existing public lands, with no changes in jurisdiction and no threats to private property rights. The role of the National Park Service would be to coordinate and manage the planning of the project and the telling of the story, not to manage any more land than it already is responsible for. 

About the Ice Age Floods Institute

·      The Ice Age Floods Institute is a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization that is committed to the recognition and presentation of the Ice Age Floods as a significant part of the nation’s, and the world’s, natural and cultural heritage.

·     The Institute was incorporated in 1995 and includes among its members many amateur and professional geologists, as well as members with interests or careers in other natural sciences and fields such as education, agriculture, outdoor recreation and community development.

·     We sponsor field trips and lectures; facilitate the exchange of information among interested individuals, organizations and agencies; and work to expand the range of interpretive resources and materials available to the public.

 Learn more about the Ice Age Floods Story

 DVD:

·     Mystery of the Megaflood produced by NOVA delves into the processes that created the flood landscape and explores the history of how the flood story went from radical theory to eventual acceptance in the scientific community.

 Books:

·     Glacial Lake Missoula by David Alt provides a good overview of the flood story with maps and illustrations

·     Bretz’s Flood by John Soennichsen is a well told tale about J Harlan Bretz, the geologist who first figured out the flood story in the 1920s.

• Trilobites are cool.  They are a popular fossil with collectors, easily recognizable, and you can find them if you know where to look.  They are the poster child of the Cambrian period, which lasted roughly from 543 to 490 million years ago. 

• The Cambrian was significant because most major animal groups appear for the first time in the fossil record in a relatively short period of time known as the Cambrian Explosion.  The theory of the Cambrian Explosion holds that an explosion of diversity led to the appearance of a huge number of complex, multi-celled organisms over a relatively short period. The changes seem to have happened in a range of about 30 million years, and some stages took 5 to 10 million years. 

• Moreover, this burst of animal forms led to most of the major animal groups we know today. Natural selection is generally believed to have favored larger size, and consequently the need for hard skeletons to provide structural support.  Hence, the Cambrian gave rise to the first shelled animals and animals with exoskeletons such as the trilobites.

• Trilobites were 10-675 mm long, and their flattened oval bodies were divided into three lobes by two longitudinal furrows. They had a single head shield, which bore a pair of antennae and, in many species, insect-like compound eyes. This was followed by more than 20 short body segments, each with a pair of forked appendages. Many trilobites apparently burrowed in sand or mud, preying on other animals or scavenging. 

• The most abundant rocks in the Scotchman Peaks area are much older rocks from the Belt-Purcell Supergroup– dating back to the Precambrian age at about 1.5 – 1.6 billion years ago.  Precambrian time ended as Paleozoic time began ~540 million years ago, at the beginning of the Cambrian Period.  However, trilobites have been reportedly found in the Scotchman Peaks area in the vicinity of the Hope Fault and Big Eddy creek.  If you are hiking up Trail 998 to Star Peak, keep your eyes open for these darlings of the Cambrian.

• Need a map for this hike?  I recommend the waterproof Kootenai Forest Service Map for a good overview and a waterproof custom print topo map made while you wait at Maps & More in downtown Sandpoint.

• Want to learn more about the geology of the region?  Northwest Exposures is a great text on the subject.

Note: A version of this article appears in the March / April 2009 issue of the Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness Newsletter

• Maps & More will be appearing at the Outdoor Sports Expo this weekend – Saturday Feb 14th (9am-6pm) and Sunday Feb. 15th (9am-5pm) - at the Bonner County Fairgrounds in Booth #15 right next to Sandpoint Outfitters.  Admission is $5.00 per day or $7.50 for both days.

• I’ll be offering a GPS seminar at noon on Saturday that covers hand-held GPS essentials and helpful hints on selecting the right hand-held GPS for your application.

• There will be door prizes from all the vendors every hour on the hour.  Several of those prizes will be from Maps & More!

• I’ll have some special expo-only deals on favorite maps and other products.  Sweetheart deals are for stock on hand and in limited quantities; act quickly to take advantage of these specials. 

See you at the fairgrounds!

-Sylvie, Maps & More