“Natural history isn’t just science, it predates science,” says Chris Lay. “It’s the observation and interpretation of the natural world from a personal perspective. It could be a scientist or an artist or a writer.”
These are the best of times for Lay. For the last six years, he has been the director and only curator for UCSC’s Museum of Natural History — almost a campus-on-the-hill secret.
Due to the lack of financial resources, the museum’s collections are mainly organized for research and classroom use only, not for public display.
Recently though, the Packard Foundation has stepped up and rewarded the environmental studies department with two endowments totaling $2 million in honor of Kenneth S. Norris, the late UCSC professor of natural history, and his career commitment to field-based education.
The first will create the Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History which Lay will manage, and the second will support the Natural History Field Quarter, an intense course which includes student field studies in California wilderness areas for 8 to 12 days.
Norris founded the course more than 40 years ago, and Lay will continue to be a lecturer. “Over a thousand people have taken that course,” he says.
Recently, the new manager guided me though a behind-the-scenes tour of his new place. We go into a room smaller than most classrooms where I see a stuffed albatross hanging from the ceiling and, behind closed cabinet doors, a moth and butterfly collection with more than 5,000 specimens.
He admits the team is starting with an empty room, but he envisions the space to function as a workroom, meeting room, classroom, reference room, a place to interface with the community and more.
There is no money for infrastructure. An endowment means the team will only receive the interest from the $2 million, not the lump sum. The scientists will use the specimens they have and move other things out.
“It will be a place where we can finally put things on display,” Lay says. “When you think of a museum, you think of exhibits — but up until now we’ve just had collections.”
He credits the Boy Scouts for his early enthusiasm for the outdoors. His scout master was a Lakota medicine man. “He wore braids and smoked a pipe. When I first showed up at around 11 years old, he took us for a medicinal plant walk and I still remember it today.”
Lay will take us on a free environmental education walk through the lower Pogonip on Saturday, Sept. 27.
He plans to bring some specimens like skulls, feathers, plaster casts of animal tracks and other secrets at the museum.
We will learn how to become learned naturalists by developing the practice of nature observation, and Lay will share some of the exercises he uses in his environmental studies classes.
“Santa Cruz has one of the highest per capita of naturalists that I can think of,” Lay said. “You can walk around, pick out any random person, and they will know something about ducks on the San Lorenzo (River) or whales in the bay.”
You may want to bring a journal. “Every class I teach involves skilled journaling, and that is the central educational tool. If people want to bring a journal, I can teach some journal activities. If you want to develop as a naturalist, your journal is one of your best teachers.”
The curator also suggests bringing a sketch book if you want.
During my coursework to become a California State Master Naturalist, journaling and sketching were emphasized but my birds looked more like whales, I was told.
Hard to believe, but this will be the 35th watershed walk sponsored by the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, and many participants have become — not only loyal walkers — but “citizen scientists.”
According to www.scistarter.com, “A citizen scientist is an individual who voluntarily contributes his or her time, effort, and resources toward scientific research in collaboration with professional scientists or alone. These individuals don’t necessarily have a formal science background.” You know who you are.
My journal teaches me the succession of the seasons and when and what animals and plants appear. “This is the time that the redwing blackbirds appear in the field and in a couple of months they will migrate.”
“This is June and the sugar-scoops will be blooming along Fall Creek.”
I have another ally on my quest. My dog Bucky teaches me how to observe nature on a microscopic level, nose closer to the ground, instead of a panoramic one, as most of us humans do. Better than a hand lens.
If you want more information on the walk, please contact me at ca****@ca*********.com.
– Carol Carson is a nature writer and Certified California State Master Naturalist.
