Cookie Conservation

We have a lot of cool resources in all of our National Parks and Monuments. Part of the job of the National Park service is ensuring the conservation and preservation of these resources, like fossils. But what would happen if we didn't practice conservation? What if everyone was allowed to take a piece for themselves? Let's use a tasty example to show why we need good conservation practices to ensure that everyone gets to enjoy everything our National Parks have to offer us.

You will need:

• 2 chocolate chip cookies per person

• Toothpicks

• Napkins or paper towels

• Timer

From the late 1800's up to the mid-1900's, fossil collecting in the Florissant Valley was legal and a popular pastime. For much of that time anyone could take as much as they wanted whenever they wanted. People would come from all parts of Colorado to take pieces of the petrified redwood stumps and shales full of fossil plants and insects. Soon fossil collecting at Florissant become so popular that tourists from outside the state came to find their own fossils to take home. In fact, in 1956, Walt Disney himself drove to Florissant to buy a whole petrified stump as a gift to his wife for their 31st anniversary. The stump Disney bought is now displayed in Frontierland of Disneyland amusement park in California.

 

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Step One:

Take one cookie and put it on the napkin. Set the timer to one minute. You have one minute to try to mine out as many chocolate chips as you can with only your fingers. When the timer goes off stop. Quantity is the goal here. Get as many chips out as you can!
This method is like the hasty collecting of the tourists. The early tourists at Florissant were more concerned with getting as many fossils out of the ground as they could in a short amount of time. A train used to stop next to an outcrop so that tourists on it could fossil hunt for a short time before moving on. They often only had a couple hours to dig. This meant that they often became sloppy and careless in their rush to find more fossils.

 

The cookie is just a mess of broken pieces and crumbs now. Most of the chocolate chips are missing from it too.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Now look at the cookie you "excavated". Would you still want to eat the cookie without all the chocolate chips you mined out? Or would you rather just eat the chocolate chips?

Even though fossil collecting was bringing both local and outside tourism to the area, people living in the valley noticed that the fossils were quickly disappearing. They began to worry that soon the petrified stumps and shale fossils would disappear completely. If nothing was done, there might not be anything left for anyone to see later on! This would mean that future generations (including us now) might never know about the ancient redwoods or beautiful fossils from the lake.

 

Carefully mining out chocolate chips is easier with tools.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Step Two:

Put your second cookie on the napkin and get your toothpicks ready. Set a timer for three (3) minutes. This time only use the toothpicks to mine the chocolate chips out of the cookie. But this round quality is the goal. Be careful and try to keep the chocolate chips intact. Don't worry about how many you mine out. Focus on getting them out whole. Again, when the timer goes off stop mining.
This method is more similar to how paleontologists use tools to carefully excavate fossils. Paleontologists also tend to take more time to excavate. They usually plan to spend days or even weeks in the field to excavate fossils.

 

Fewer chocolate chips have been removed, but both the cookie and the chocolate chips are more in tact.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Step Three:

Look at the two cookies. If you could only eat one cookie with none of the chocolate chips that were removed, which cookie would you want more? The cookie you tried to get the most chips out of, or the one you were more careful with excavating?

Thankfully, through the efforts of several lawyers and environmental activists (including a number of concerned local citizens), the area was designated as Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in 1969. Since then, the National Park Service has worked to preserve and conserve the fossils of Florissant Valley. This way, we can help ensure that people today and future generations are all able to see the fossils and experience the monument as nature intended.

New Words!

• Conservation: noun; a careful preservation and protection of something

• Preservation: noun; a keeping from injury, loss, or decay

 

Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan for Cookie Conservation