Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Good planet. It's a hot zones Tropic climbs season is winds blowing. Some breathing trees. Strong
Speaker 0 00:00:26 Sunshine.
Speaker 1 00:00:27 Good planets are hard to find.
Speaker 0 00:00:30 Yeah. Good Planet.
Speaker 2 00:00:35 Hello Case squid listeners. It's every other Sunday again, and you're listening to sustainability now, a biweekly case, good radio show focused on environment, sustainability and social justice in the Monterey Bay region, California and the world. I'm your host, Ronnie Lipitz. My guest today is Marissa Gomez, community education and collaboration manager at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. In that role, Marisa oversees the museum's community programs, partnerships, and online engagement through social media and digital resources. Marissa has a BA in creative writing from San Jose State University is a certified California naturalist and serves on the boards of the uc, Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden, and the Santa Cruz chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Well, Marisa Gomez, welcome to sustainability. Now,
Speaker 3 00:01:28 Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 00:01:31 Uh, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History is I think one of the county's unsung gems and least after one's children have grown. I last was at the museum probably 25 years ago, you know, when my wife and I took our kids there. Um, I'm assuming we took our kids there. Yeah, so why don't
Speaker 3 00:01:50 You Yeah, we hear that a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:01:52 <laugh>, why don't you tell us something about the museum and how it got started.
Speaker 3 00:01:56 Yeah. So, uh, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History is actually Santa Cruz's first public museum. We trace our origin story back to the late 18 hundreds with a woman named Laura Heacock. She lived at the original lighthouse out on Westcliff Drive with her family. Her father was the Lighthouse Keep, and when he passed away, she took over his post. And even before then, she had started to amass a great collection of natural history objects from just being a kid along Westcliff Drive and just being curious. She collected shells and fossils and curios. And so when she took over the posts Lighthouse keep, she also opened up the lighthouse for the community. And part of the experience that they got was exploring her own mini museum. So she, uh, developed a reputation both in town but also more broadly. She actually has a couple of species named after her.
Speaker 3 00:02:57 And when the city of Santa Cruz was, uh, planning for the first public library, which is the downtown branch of the library, they saved a room for a museum. And they asked Laura if she would be willing to donate some objects for the foundation of that museum. And she did. And that library and that museum opened up in 1905. And so that is where we trace our history is to her and to that original location. So we've been around for going on 120 years now, and have had many different homes over those years. Uh, have had other like, sort of iterations to, we were the Santa Cruz City Museum for many years. And in 2009 we became an independent nonprofit organization. And that's where we are today. Um, and I like to think of our current, uh, our current iteration as sort of a renaissance time for the museum. There's a lot of exciting things happening.
Speaker 2 00:03:54 Where are, where are her collections kept?
Speaker 3 00:03:57 So the collections are kept onsite at our location in a Seabright neighborhood. We're located across the street from Seabright Beach, which is such an awesome place to have an office. <laugh> mm-hmm. <affirmative> in, uh, a, a Santa Cruz City Park, Terell Park with a creek that lines it. It's really gorgeous. And, uh, in our building there, we house a lot of our collections. We also have a lot of collections on display within our exhibits. And then we have a couple of offsite storage locations too, because, um, the amount of collections that we have is more than we can fit within our building.
Speaker 2 00:04:26 Um, so what is your ba what is your role at the museum and and how did you end up, you know, doing that?
Speaker 3 00:04:33 So, my current title is Community Education and Collaboration Manager, which is maybe the only title of its Kind in the world. I don't know if I've ever heard of another one, another person with that title. Um, and it's really what it gets to is that I focus on connecting folks in the community with our mission, which is connecting people with nature and science to inspire stewardship of the natural world. So I help the museum accomplish that through programming, through our digital communications with our website and social media cha channels. Uh, and it's, it's quite a fun, fun gig. I came to it from maybe roundabout way. I think a lot of folks, especially within our education department at the museum, have a background in natural sciences, and that's what brought them to the museum and brought them to wanting to do environmental education. And that's not really my story.
Speaker 3 00:05:29 Uh, as a kid, I was not very into nature and crawling around in the dirt and climbing trees. I grew up in a family of artists and visiting museums. And so I've long felt very comfortable in a museum setting. And I actually, I got my degree in creative writing. So when I moved to Santa Cruz, I wanted to learn more about my new community and connect with my community and really, uh, wanted to work on some writing projects. So I started volunteering at the museum and really got totally hooked. Um, I, like I said, I, I don't have a background in natural sciences, and so it was all new to me and it was all fascinating. And so I just continued to grow and grow within my role there as a volunteer, as a part-time environmental educator. And now seven plus years later, leading our community engagement efforts.
Speaker 2 00:06:26 Well, natural history used to be about collecting things. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> right about, about making collections and, and now I guess it's, it's something different. And you're a California certified naturalist?
Speaker 3 00:06:37 Yes.
Speaker 2 00:06:37 And how did, how did you come to be one?
Speaker 3 00:06:40 Well, so like I was saying, I don't have a background in natural sciences. So when I came to the museum, I had a lot to learn and that was the best part of the job, just getting to learn. But I found that joining the California Naturalist Program was a really wonderful way to get a foundation about our local ecology. So this is a program that folks can find throughout the state of California. It's run by the uc system, and here locally in Santa Cruz, it is housed at the uc Santa Cruz Arboretum. So I did that maybe six years ago now, and it was a wonderful experience. It's sort of an intensive, uh, I think it was 10 weeks, and you go a couple times each week and you learn about different aspects of local ecology. And so that really helped give me that foundation that I've then been able to build off of further within this, this role.
Speaker 2 00:07:37 Have, uh, are you doing any kind of collecting? Uh,
Speaker 3 00:07:41 So the museum still does collect, but it's not as prominent, uh, a role for our operations as it has been in years past. I mentioned that we've got collections, uh, both at the museum, but also at some offsite locations because we don't have enough space at the museum for all of our objects. And so our collections team is really currently focusing on making our existing collections accessible. So they're focused on cataloging and digitizing our collections so that researchers throughout the world can have access to that information as well as the local community. But when there are amazing opportunities that come up, will, will still add to our collections.
Speaker 2 00:08:25 Um, and your degree, you have this degree in creative writing. Um, have you been, do you do any kind of writing about nature?
Speaker 3 00:08:33 Yeah, less, less now than I used to for, you know, my personal life. But for my work through the museum, I'm lucky enough to have writing be a part of it. So I think that's, that's why I don't do it as much personally anymore. But I, uh, put together our social media posts mm-hmm. <affirmative> and articles for the website, things like that. And so I get to dabble in creative nonfiction about the natural world, which is fun. And social media is, uh, you know, it's a challenge to get something that is engaging and bite size and informative and accurate. And so I have a lot of fun with that.
Speaker 2 00:09:14 Do do you do any reading in, in natural history or in, you know, environmental books? I'm just curious to whether you, you know, what the last book you might have read about.
Speaker 3 00:09:23 Well, we actually, we used to have a natural history book club at the museum that sort of fell, fell away. It was a staff, uh, project that we did just for fun. And I'm trying to think of what the most recent book was for that book club We did Gathering Moss, um, by Robin Wall Kimmer. We did a book that was about the natural history of color. Rust was a topic, um, coyote America mm-hmm. <affirmative>, lots of, lots of fun books for that book club. And I do a lot of learning through community events, which is, I guess, appropriate for my <laugh> for my role. I learn both from the events that I get to attend through the museum, but also I like to go to, uh, talks and experiences throughout the community and watch webinars on the computer, things like that. That's how I receive a lot of my information as well as honestly social media. I scroll and I, there's a lot of, uh, great account accounts that I follow that, that help me learn about what's going on. And just, there's so many amazing resources within this town that just talking to, to folks who live here is, you know, plenty <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:10:37 So the museum's website says you have 30,000 visitors a year, and I'm, I'm wondering how many of those are kids coming from schools or coming with their parents, and how many then are community members who are coming for other reasons?
Speaker 3 00:10:52 Yeah, so it's sort of interesting that we've had a bit of a flip flop in recent years. Prior to the pandemic, we had maybe twice as many school kids coming for field trips to the museum as we did folks from the community coming to museum programs. And currently it's about the opposite. So twice as many people visiting for our community programs. And I think there's probably a variety of reasons for that. Part of it is that it's been difficult for schools to, you know, deal with the pandemic and, uh, get back into the swing of coming on field trips. There's a lot of barriers. One of the things that's really important to us at the museum is trying to help schools get to us. So we work hard on finding sponsorship for transportation scholarships, especially for schools that are visiting from South County. So a little farther away, um, that might have some other BA barriers for visiting.
Speaker 3 00:11:51 So we're trying to address those issues currently. But I think the other side of it is that folks really became starved for community connections during those early days of the pandemic. And so when we were able to open back up again, started o offering programs again, people really responded very positively. And we've put a lot of efforts into expanding those programs. So we offer so many more now, which is why we're able to serve so many more people through our community programs. And then through visitation with the museum, we get so many families coming in, just like you were saying at the open of this talk that a lot of people have that experience of visiting when they were a little kid climbing on the whale or bringing their kids to the museum. And that's definitely still a large part of who we, who we try to serve. We have a lot of interactive exhibits throughout the museum that are really appealing and accessible for, for young kids. And then, but it's really with everything that we do, it's sort of, uh, um, a spectrum of the community who comes and visits. So we see all types.
Speaker 2 00:13:02 You're listening to sustainability now. I'm Ronnie Lipschitz program host, and I'm speaking with Marisa Gomez, community education and Collaboration manager at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. What kind of programs do you offer for children? I, I saw on the website there quite a lot and I wonder if you could describe some of them.
Speaker 3 00:13:23 Yeah, so we have our curriculum-based school programs, so a lot thousands of kids throughout the county and more broadly visit the museum for field trips. And we have five field trip offerings for K through five grades. And then we also have a really exciting program that's been going on for more than a decade now, that's called the Earth Stewards Project, which is specifically for high school stu students to engage in environmental stewardship work throughout the county, learning from local land managers and developing skills that can lead towards green careers. So that's a really amazing program that our education coordinator Chris Soriano oversees. He also oversees our camp program, which is very popular and expanding. I think just a couple of years ago we offered four summer camps, and now we're offering 12 summer camps in addition to spring camp and winter camp. So our education team that focuses on youth programs are very busy and have a lot to offer for these more structured youth programs.
Speaker 3 00:14:25 And then in my realm of our education department, which is kinda leisure time for community members and families to engage with the museum, we also offer family focused programs. We have a series called Family Fun, which is a monthly series that is usually offsite in nature and kids and their families can come and engage with a variety of topics. This month the theme is birds. Last month it was mushrooms. Next month it's going to be nature journaling. And then through the summer we have larger festival like events that are part of our super summer Saturday series, so people can, can look forward to those coming up soon.
Speaker 2 00:15:07 Well, I know last, last month February was Fungus February, right? Yes. What did that, what did that entail?
Speaker 3 00:15:12 Oh my gosh, it's my favorite time of year. I personally am very, very interested in mushrooms and have become obsessed with them over the past couple of years. Again, just because of my job and getting to connect with local mushroom experts, we had a, an exhibit in 2020 that was called Mushrooms. And that really sparked it for me. And so sort of selfishly I've been putting together these programs, but also what we've noticed is that the community is frothing at the mouth, uh, for the opportunity to connect with local mushroom experts and learn more about this aspect of our natural world. We launched fungus February last mushroom season and had an overwhelming response. So this year we did it again and offered even more programs and they all filled instantly, we added even more. And then those filled, so there's, uh, a big appetite for, for mushrooms in this community.
Speaker 3 00:16:08 And what we did for fungus February was we actually kicked off the mushroom season in December with our mini fungus fair, which actually coincided with an Atmospheric river event. <laugh>. Yeah. But we still had over 500 people come to the museum that day, even though it was, um, a stormy, rainy day. And we kicked off the mushroom season with that. And then we partnered with the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz, and they did a lot of offerings in January. And then we rounded out the season in February with Fungus February doing guided mushroom walks throughout the community. We had a workshop with a local science illustrator where we went, looked for mushrooms, and then brought some back to the museum and, uh, drew them and painted them. And then we also had a talk at the museum about lichens. We had a member meetup about lichens and our family focused scavenger hunt for mushrooms. So it was a really fun time. And now I suspect that, you know, mushroom season's just gonna keep going with all this rain that we've been having.
Speaker 2 00:17:08 Yeah. Uh, I imagine So, um, this month you've got a, an exhibit on the Art of Nature. Yes. Tell us, you know, about, about that and whose art is being exhibited.
Speaker 3 00:17:19 Well, this is an annual exhibit. We do it every year, but it's different every year. And we've been doing it for about 35 years now. It started with a collaboration with the Science Illustration Program at uc Santa Cruz. And we had an exhibit called Illustrating Nature that went on for many years. And that program at uc Santa Cruz eventually moved to C S U M B. And when that program moved, they took the exhibit to their new local museum, the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. So illustrating nature still happens at Pacific Grove, so you can go visit that this spring as well. But we wanted to keep doing this exhibit of science illustration because it's so beloved and it's such a wonderful medium for better understanding the natural world. So we continued it in its current iteration, which is called The Art of Nature.
Speaker 3 00:18:11 And this year we have more artists featured than probably ever before. There are 45 local artists featured in the exhibit All who practice science illustration. And we actually have a section this year called Beyond Science Illustration because some of them do so in a surprising way. So we have some 3D printed sculptures of neuter brink sea slugs. We have a really large piece about plastic pollution that looks like a great white shark jaw, but it's made up of, uh, plastic found on the beach. That's by Glenda Mahoney. The neuter brink sculptures are by Nicholas ta. And it's just a really beautiful display of really classic pieces of botanical illustrations as well as informative panels that you might see at a public park. And then these more surprising 3d, um, iterations as well. And it's, it just opened on March 11th, and it'll be on view through May 13th. Definitely recommend visiting. And then of course, we've got a bunch of programs that support it as well.
Speaker 2 00:19:18 Yeah, and you did just did a program on extreme weather, which seems extremely <laugh> <laugh> appropriate right now. Um,
Speaker 3 00:19:26 Yeah, and it, it was timely because we made it timely. This is a response to the weather events that we've been having, and we just thought that it was important that we helped the community dive a little bit deeper into what is happening, put it into a historical context, and also think about what the future of our region is gonna look like. So mid-January we started talking about like, what can we do? And so we came up with this series called Extreme Weather that we just closed out, and it launched with a community program at London Nelson, which was headlined by Gary Griggs, who's an oceanographer with U c Santa Cruz and a historian. And he gave a really wonderful look back on the history of weather related disasters in the county. And then we follow that up with some Lightning talks, which are appropriately named, um, with Nate Monte from Noah Fisheries and Tiffany Wise West from the city of Santa Cruz's Climate Action Program.
Speaker 3 00:20:26 And our executive director, Felicia Van Stoke, who ended up all in conversation about what the future of our landscape might look like. And then we also had a resource fair at the museum for folks to come and just ask questions of local experts and organizations who are doing work related to these weather phenomena. And then we just had a geology of Westcliffe walk with some PhD candidates that we work with at U c Santa Cruz, which was absolutely fantastic. So that was a really impactful series for, you know, for me personally, I learned a lot about it and it's helped me put what's going on in context. And we have a recording of the, the talk with Gary Griggs too, so folks can visit our website and still still engage with that series that way.
Speaker 2 00:21:13 Did, did, did you go on the Westcliff
Speaker 3 00:21:15 Wall? Oh, yes. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:21:17 Definitely. And, and did you talk about, um, what's it called? Calculated withdrawal? I don't remember exactly what the term was.
Speaker 3 00:21:23 Yeah, we were focused mostly on the geologic context, Uhhuh <affirmative> of that stretch of land. Yeah. So these two geologists, Gavin Piconi and Jessica Gagliardi, they led us on a tour from, we started at Lighthouse Point at the Surfing Museum, and we talked about our museum's history because we got our start there with the original lighthouse. And actually, if you look over the railing at Lighthouse Point, you can see the original foundation of that lighthouse that they orig they had to pick up and move to the other side of Westcliff Drive, because back in the 18 hundreds, the city was like, oh, you know what, this cliff is eroding and this lighthouse needs to be moved. And then in, I think it was 1960, they built the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse, which is the one that's currently there and put it back on the coast side of Westcliff Drive, um, farther, farther back in, but still, you know, kind of close to that eroding coast. And so we, we walked from the lighthouse down to Mitchell's Cove, and we saw parts of where the path has eroded away. We saw a natural arch that is still visible for now, um, along the cliff and learned about the rock formations, um, and did have some conversations about what the future of that area could look like and what some of the strategies that are currently being toyed around are.
Speaker 2 00:22:45 Yeah. Um, just to, just to note, I know that over on East Cliff Drive, there's a stretch right above sea, bright Beach. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> of the old, of old, I guess East Cliff Drive that was abandoned some time ago. And so it's not unheard of and
Speaker 3 00:23:01 No. Yeah. We, we have a, there's a book that's, um, called Seabright then and now, I think Yeah. That we carry in our gift shop. And there's a picture from, I believe it's the 1950s of, of folks kind of inspecting, uh, a part of the cliff that fell away that looks very eerily similar to what we are seeing currently on Westcliff Drive.
Speaker 2 00:23:24 Yeah. Um, well, we're not actually in the museum, but why don't we do a virtual tour of the museum. Yeah. Okay. <laugh>. Okay. Uh, we'll take a short break before that, you're listening to sustainability. Now I'm Ronnie Lipschitz program host, and I'm speaking with Marisa Gomez, community education and collaboration manager at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. So, um, I know that you're interested, you in the museum are very interested in, um, education focused on the Amma Musen and the first Peoples of California who lived in the Monterey Bay region. And I know that one of the, for front wings of the museum is devoted to that topic. So can you describe what's in the room and maybe also the mural?
Speaker 3 00:24:09 Yeah. So when you first walk in the room, that is really what stands out most. There's a mural that goes from floor to ceiling along a full wall in this gallery, and it was painted by local artist and teman, it depicts a village. She went to nice scene marks to get inspiration. And so, uh, you can, you know, think of it being an Aptos village and it depicts folks living their life in this landscape as it would've looked like maybe 500 years ago, and shows them tending the landscape, collecting from the landscape, being in community. It shows versions of what tule thatched houses might look like. There's a river that runs through lined with tule that is throughout the, the mural being used. There are folks cooking in baskets and bringing deer back to be processed. There's a sweat house that's built into the ground and animals surrounding as well.
Speaker 3 00:25:17 It's a beautiful mural. And then also within that room, there are cases that display primarily baskets. This is a really important part of the local material culture. Instead of, uh, like clay pottery, which we think of for other parts of the current United States in this area was a lot of fiber-based work and very diverse types of baskets. So within the exhibit, there are a lot of baskets that are throughout the California region and a little beyond, but we have one really special basket, which was actually made at Mission Santa Cruz in the 18 hundreds. And our local baskets, there's, there's not a lot left from before the mission era because they just don't really hold up very well in the archeological record. And also when, um, colonists first arrived here, there was a lot of, uh, collecting of baskets and then bringing it to the places where they had come from. So a lot of our local baskets from the Monterey Bay region, um, and from the San Francisco Bay Area are actually at the Hermitage in Russia of all places. But, um, we are really honored to steward this one basket that was made very locally.
Speaker 2 00:26:32 Is that because when the Russians were, were here, they did the collecting?
Speaker 3 00:26:36 Yeah. They were here for fur trading was a big, a big thing. So we, um, a lot of people have heard about that with our Sea Otter population and how, um, those sea otters were thought to be extinct for, for many years, um, but have rebounded pretty well, um, after many years of being hunted for their, for their pelts.
Speaker 2 00:26:58 Um, what what about tending of the land, the, the, you know, the, uh, the first peoples did a lot of management, nature management, right? I mean, we think of it as being something post, uh, post European arrival, but what sorts of things did they do before that?
Speaker 3 00:27:15 Yeah, the, the landscape that the Europeans found when they came here was one that was specifically tended and curated in a way to, to look like it was by the native people who have lived here for 13,000 years. And so I mentioned that a lot of the tools that have been used here historically have been made from plants. And so in order to do that, there was a lot of thought put into how to tend to these plants so that we can have enough of them and have them be in good enough quality for us to be able to utilize them. And so there are specific techniques for helping sge roots grow straight so that they can be used in basketry, because if the sge root had to encounter rocks and other roots and things along the way, it would kink and go in different directions, and it wouldn't be this long straight piece of fiber that can be used easily for baskets.
Speaker 3 00:28:14 And so just really tending the soil to make sure that things can grow freely. Fire has been a huge part of tending this landscape for millennia, and it's one of the reasons why we have our coastal prairie habitat type. Before people came here, we had large megafauna like mastodons and mammoths and camels and giant slogs, and these big grazers who would help keep shrubs and trees at bay and allow for these big open spaces. And when people came here, they implemented a similar sort of effect through fire, which keeps things like coyote brush and different shrubs, Douglas fur forests from encroaching on these big fields. And these big fields are useful for people because there's a lot of space. It's a great place to, um, post up your village. It's also, uh, landscape that is incredibly biodiverse. Our coastal prairie landscape is one of the most diverse habitat types on earth.
Speaker 3 00:29:13 And those, uh, annual Forbes and bulbs and different plants that pop up in those native grasslands are, are very useful for people. And so that's something that people have been doing for, for so long. And then when the Spanish, um, came with the mission period, they put a stop to that. And so we've seen this landscape change because of fire suppression and also because of development. These nice coastal terrace prairies that are flat are the perfect location to put a building. It's a lot less work than than cutting down trees and making space when the space already exists. So mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And the other threat that's that's happened is, um, invasive grasses that have been brought from different parts of the world that compete for space with our native plants. And so the Alma Musen, which is the tribal band that stewards this area, they are actively working on relearning these stewardship, um, practices and other aspects of their culture and reimplementing them into this landscape. So they have some amazing partnerships with California state parks, national parks, other local land managers to, um, to bring these practices back to the landscape.
Speaker 2 00:30:25 There, there's this, this program, the relearning program at the, uh, U C S E arboretum, uh, you know, which, uh, I guess is part of that, right? What, what does that do?
Speaker 3 00:30:35 So that program is a space for the Alma Musen to come and, uh, do plant work and collect plants and also do this relearning process. And so relearning comes from this fact that there's been this great disruption in their culture, um, for obvious reasons due to colonization. And so there's been displacement from local indigenous communities. Many of the people who are members of the Alma Mutz and tribal band do not live within their ancestral territory. A lot of them live in the Central Valley, so they have to travel on distances to get here and be connected with their ancestral lands. And there's also been, you know, assimilation over the years and other, uh, challenges towards being able to maintain all aspects of their culture. So they relearn by looking at ethnographic a, um, records by talking to researchers, which is part of what happens with the relearning program at the Arboretum.
Speaker 3 00:31:34 Um, by working with archeologists, there's a great archeological lab at uc, Berkeley that is a collaborative program. And so when Arche archeology happens on these ancestral lands, it happens in direct collaboration with the tribe, which has been really impactful for them being able to, um, to relearn. And these notions are included within our current exhibit. We've gone through some rewriting phases in recent years where we worked directly with the Alma Motson to update the, the labels within our First people's exhibit and highlight the stewardship work that's going on. And this exhibit is also accessible online. We have a virtual version of it.
Speaker 2 00:32:15 Um, you, you've mentioned about something about the language there, you know, what, what were the languages? I mean, that to me, that's quite interesting because yeah, there's such a diversity of languages in such small spaces. Yeah. You know, what did people, you know, what languages did people speak?
Speaker 3 00:32:31 Yeah. It's, it certainly was a diverse, uh, landscape for language that rivaled places like Papua New, new Guinea, if people who are into linguistics, it's been a very linguistically diverse area in California. Um, kind of mirroring the biodiversity that we, that we see here too. And in Santa Cruz, the language spoken here historically was a Wawas. And unfortunately that is linguistically considered a dead language. There are about 700 words left that we know about from that language, but our, one of the neighboring languages is Musen. And so Ahma Musen means the Musen people. And that language is, uh, was spoken in the Elkhorn slew, um, Watsonville area over the hill into Gilroy. And that language we actually know so much more about currently because of this one woman, ASEN Desantes, uh, solar Sano Asen Solar Sano Dees. And she was on her deathbed in the 1930s and invited an ethnographer from the Smithsonian, JP Harrington to come live with her. And she shared her wealth of knowledge about the language. She was a, a muk speaking woman, but also she was a culture bearer for, um, for her tribe. And so she shared much more than the language, but also their practices. And that has been incredibly important for the Amma Musen in their relearning process. Um, just absolutely priceless work that she contributed on her deathbed.
Speaker 2 00:34:10 Do do any of the o of the people, uh, the Amma Musen actually speak Muttin?
Speaker 3 00:34:16 Um, I'm curious. I believe that there's, you know, there's an effort to, to relearn the language and to incorporate the language in ceremony. Um, and, but there, as far as I know, there are no native speakers left that have continued to, um, to speak it as part of their, their upbringing. It's a, it's part of the relearning process.
Speaker 2 00:34:36 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:34:37 But that, there's a dictionary that's the Musen English English mo dictionary that is available for free online as A P D F, that's also linked in our virtual exhibit. And one of the things we've tried to do within our galleries is if we know a muon word for something that's on display or in a waswas word for something that's on display, uhhuh <affirmative>, we'll incorporate that in the labels.
Speaker 2 00:34:57 Uhhuh <affirmative>, Uhhuh <affirmative>. Well, let's go onto the rest of the museum. Okay. In the middle, in the middle space, you have a title pool.
Speaker 3 00:35:05 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:35:06 So, you know, why do you have that there?
Speaker 3 00:35:08 Yeah, so we, um, had an intertidal touch pool for many years. It was one of the first of its kind. And in, I believe 2016, we revamped that exhibit and redid the tide pool so that it is more of a natural look. It looks like a tide pool that you might find out on Westcliff Drive. And it's also accessible. So there are two pools, and one of them is very short, with little steps that go up to it so that very small children <laugh> can access it. It's also wheelchair accessible, which, um, also makes the tide pools more accessible. And that pool is full of creatures that we collect from the intertidal coastline of the Monterey Bay. We have a science collecting permit, and there are certain things that we're allowed to collect and other things we're not. And so periodically we collect new animals like muscles, um, and hermit crabs and SNAs, things like that. And we put them in the pool so that folks can directly engage with nature at the museum. And it's a, a really wonderful, um, interactive exhibit that we have. And that, that's part of our Santa Cruz naturalist exhibit, which is all in honor of our founder Laura Hicock. So there's some other interactive things that can be done in that exhibit. And you can also see parts of her original collection on display. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative> in a big cabinet that we have there too.
Speaker 2 00:36:30 You're listening to sustainability. Now. I'm Ronnie Lipschitz program host, and I'm speaking with Marisa Gomez, community Education and Collaboration manager at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Okay. The, the back part of the museum is, uh, dedicated to shoreline to summit. And let's talk about that. What does that cover?
Speaker 3 00:36:51 So that's our habitat exploration. So as you walk through the room, you go from habitat to habitat habitats that you would see within Santa Cruz County. So you start within the wetlands and you'll see sea otters, which we think of as ocean animals, but they're also wetland animals. Places like Elkhorn Slew, um, and other coastal lagoons that connect up with the ocean. Sea otters can seek refuge in that area. There's a beautiful, great blue heron, um, amphibians. We have these just amazing specimens that are actual, they were living frogs and salamanders that went through this special taxidermy process to be freeze dried. And just amazing that these like really soft tissued uh, organisms have been able to be preserved in that way. And then you walk through and you go to the Woodlands Grasslands, Chaperral, our Sandhills, the Redwood Forest. So you get to explore all the different habitat types, types that we have in Santa Cruz, um, as well as sea animals that are from this area to on display through taxidermy.
Speaker 2 00:37:55 Where did, where did they all come from? I mean, you've got a lot of taxi. What? I taxidermic animals. <laugh>. So, so how did you, how did the museum accumulate them?
Speaker 3 00:38:04 I don't know the stories for a lot of the animals. Um, most of the taxidermy came to us many decades ago before my time, um, often prepared before it was donated or back in the day, we had folks on staff or folks in the community who prepared them for us. So one of my favorite cases within that room is our taxidermy case, and it's got a badger, an American badger, um, up at the top of it. And there's a photo of the person preparing that badger. And that person is Randy Morgan, who as a local conservationist, entomologist, botanist, um, and also taxidermist, just like so many things. And he, he passed away several years ago, but he, um, was a wonderful resource for this community. And I really love that you can see taxidermy in action with that photo. That animal was prepared in a sort of traditional way where the insides are removed and a sort of armature structure is built, and then the, uh, pelt gets put back on, put in fake eyes, things like that.
Speaker 3 00:39:06 But, um, much of our taxi man display was prepared by a man named Richard John Gurney, who had a taxidermy shop in Watsonville called Freezed Dry Taxidermy. He was a Watsonville native, um, got started in taxidermy in the fifties, went to work for the Smithsonian for some time, and really pioneered this unique form of freezed drying taxidermy. And he passed away just a few months ago. So we also did a webinar that we have a recording of up on our website that was with, um, folks from the naturalist community who knew him and worked with him and have benefited from his, his work over the years. So if people are learn, interested in learning more about taxidermy, there are other resources on our website too.
Speaker 2 00:39:48 Did he, did he freeze dry things other than amphibians?
Speaker 3 00:39:51 Yeah. Yeah. So, oh, we, he did such a beautiful job. Sometimes taxidermy done the traditional way, can, you know, not look quite so accurate. It sort of looks like something weird's going on underneath there. But with his specimens being freeze-dried, they have their structure, no one had to manipulate them in any way. So he would just pose them before going in the freeze dryer. And they have some beautiful displays of birds, you know, with their wings, um, spread out, uh, usually smaller animals that could fit within. Um, his, his setup.
Speaker 2 00:40:26 His device. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:40:28 His device. Yeah. But there's, it's really good for soft body things that are otherwise would not have been easily taxidermy. So we've got an octopus in our collections too. It's not on display, but it was also done with freeze dry. But a lot of our birds were, were done by him.
Speaker 2 00:40:44 So when, when we look at them, their inns are still there.
Speaker 3 00:40:47 Their inns are still there. Yeah. They've just like all the moistures been, um, just instantly, uh, transformed so that there's no more moisture left in them. But they have all of their innards, which is, you know, its own sort of pest issue for us. The, the pests like them more because there's, there's more. Oh, there's still something. There's more meat in them. So our collection
Speaker 2 00:41:07 Theme mummified with mummified without being shrunken, so,
Speaker 3 00:41:11 Exactly. Yeah. Mummified. But cuter.
Speaker 2 00:41:13 Yeah. What's your favorite animal then?
Speaker 3 00:41:16 My favorite animal at the museum? Yeah. I, I mean, I love that badger. I've never seen a badger in the wild, and I am just really fond of the one that we have on display. It's got really drippy little teeth and, um, you can see part of its armature sticking out under its tail, and it's just like very charming. But also badgers in general, I just think are, it's, people are shocked that they live here. And I continue to be shocked that they live here. I've never seen one in a while, like I said, but I've seen their burrows, which was one of the most exciting animal sightings of my life, even though I didn't actually see the animal, I just saw, um, it's hole in the ground. So I love the, the badger.
Speaker 2 00:41:55 So what, what should we look for if we're out in the, you know, in the woods and the mountains, if we wanna
Speaker 3 00:42:00 See? Yeah, so, so the sandy soils are good. Um, it'll be a big hole in the ground. So people are probably familiar with seeing gopher holes, ground squirrel holes, um, kind of just like messy, chewed up bits of earth. But with the badger hole, it's gonna be bigger and it's gonna have a big pile of sandy soil that's been spit out from it.
Speaker 2 00:42:23 Do do foxes, do dig burrows or do they borrow burrows? Do you know?
Speaker 3 00:42:29 I, i, I do not know much about fox habits. Um, so I'll have to look into that one.
Speaker 2 00:42:34 Do do you have a fox in your exhibit?
Speaker 3 00:42:36 Yeah, we have a gray fox uhhuh, which is also a much beloved animal.
Speaker 2 00:42:40 Yeah. Yeah. Um, and what kind of birds, I mean, I know there are a lot of birds in in the exhibits. What's
Speaker 3 00:42:47 Your Yeah. We've got, um, a large brown pelican that's soaring up, um, from the ceiling. We have an albatross also soaring in our cases. We have a flicker, which is one of my favorites. It's one of those beautiful displays of its wings, um, outstretched, and they just have really beautiful plumage. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we've got a couple of cases that are meant to be able to compare and contrast species of similar animals. So there's a hawk case and you can compare, um, a red-tailed hawk with a red shoulder hawk with a sharp shin hawk with a juvenile Cooper's hawk. Um, and then we've also got an owl case that has a barn owl, pygmy owl, great horn owl like
Speaker 2 00:43:30 That. Do you have any eagles?
Speaker 3 00:43:31 Yeah, we've got a golden eagle that's also soaring, um, above, which is a wonderful addition. And also for our school programs, we often utilize the, the eagle and the badger for a story that's a, um, a traditional local indigenous story about how hummingbird got fire and eagle plays a role in that story as well as badger.
Speaker 2 00:43:55 And I know you've, you've got a king snake Yeah. In there, you
Speaker 3 00:43:59 Know. Yeah. So we, in addition Prometheus taxidermy, we have a couple of live animal exhibits too. So I already mentioned the tide pool, but Prometheus yes. Is our California king snake that has been in our care for 25 years, which is much longer than, um, he likely would have lived out in the wild. So he recently came out of Bration, which is a sort of hibernation toper state, um, that snakes do to reserve energy during cold times. And so we have like, like a little below borough for him that he goes down into, and there's a window and you can look in at him sleeping in there. But he recently popped back up to the, to the main part where there's a heat lamp for him. Um, so he's active again, which is exciting. And then we are awaiting the return of our honeybee hive. So we've got, um, the, the hive still on display, and when we do have honeybees that live in there, they go in and out through a tube that leaves the museum and then the honeybees go and take advantage of our native plant garden. That's our outdoor exhibit.
Speaker 2 00:45:04 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Well, we're coming to the close to the end of our, of our time. Um, uh, the list of past and future events you've organized is, is pretty impressive. I mean, you must be very busy, but what's, what's coming up in the next few months?
Speaker 3 00:45:21 Yeah, we like to keep busy and there's just so many things to, uh, to connect with in terms of our natural world in Santa Cruz. And so we like to cover it all and we are looking forward to our series of events that's in support of the Art of Nature exhibit. So we've partnered with several of the science illustrators in the show to lead field illustration workshops out in various parts of the county and beyond. Actually, we're gonna go to some, some farther field places. Uh, we are going to do some family events with, uh, kids focused on dry drawing in nature for that. We're gonna have a Nu to Brink painting party, which I'm really excited about. And our first Friday series is launching again in April. So that is where we have extended hours. Um, we do free admission all day for the museum, but then our after hours events will start again in April.
Speaker 3 00:46:09 We'll be open till eight, and we have special festivities in the park, which is gonna launch with some, uh, art focused events where artists are gonna come and display their work and sell work. And we also are gonna be looking at insects in the coming months. Reptiles, we have a reptile walk and insect walk. Uh, we're gonna do some tide pooling in the summer. We're looking forward to our summer festival series. And we are also preparing for our next temporary exhibits, which will have some special walks to places like Chiton Coast Dairys, which is not yet open to the public. So it's exciting that we're gonna be able to bring people out there, um, a little early
Speaker 2 00:46:50 That's, that's on the coast north of Davenport, right? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, there's a whole bunch of land that's just been, um, basically Is it deeded to the B l m or is what's the
Speaker 3 00:47:02 Yeah, it became a national monument in recent years. And so the B l M is, um, preparing it for public access. And so we're gonna, we're gonna help show it off to folks, which is exciting. Um, and then also similarly up in that, that part of the county, we're gonna be doing some more fire ecology walks, which has been something we've been very focused on mm-hmm. <affirmative> in recent years since the C u Lightning Complex fires. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So we'll be doing more of that too.
Speaker 2 00:47:28 And, um, I know you do special events for Halloween.
Speaker 3 00:47:32 Yes. <laugh>. So that's my favorite time of year. Our executive director, Felicia Van Stoke, launched this series when she, uh, first came to the museum. Our first, uh, event was in 2016 when she was our education director. And, um, I've gotten to, to continue it on. And last year we did the theme of Maritime Mysteries and Monsters, and it was also the first year where we put together a special exhibit, uh, in conjuncture with this party. And so this year, I'm not gonna reveal what the theme is yet, but it's gonna be really fun. Uh, it's an amazing exhibit time for us, but also this special after hours event where people dress up in costumes, which is also just so fun to get people who love nature dressing up in nature themed costumes in one place together. We do a costume contest. Um, Nu To Brink seems to be the theme of the day-to-day, because last year's costume contest winner was dressed as a nu to brink, a Spanish shawl, nu to Brink. So it's, it's
Speaker 2 00:48:32 Great fun. <laugh> Well, we're, we're almost out of time. Is there do anything that you wanna say that we haven't covered, or you wanna give a pitch?
Speaker 3 00:48:40 Excuse me. Yeah, I just, I hope that for folks who have not yet visited the museum or have, it's been a long time since they last visited the museum, come and, and check us out. We do have these special rotating exhibits, so you never know what you're gonna get when you walk through our doors, but also for folks who love nature, like we're your spot. We are your hub for connecting with fellow nature lovers and diving deeper. There's, you know, never ending things to do with us. And I hope that you, um, come join our museum community. And one of the best ways to do that is by becoming a museum member too. There are special series that are just for our museum members, which are some of my, uh, my favorite things that we get to do. Our Geology of Westcliff Walk was part of our member meetup series, for instance. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:49:23 <affirmative>. And when, when is the museum open? Just, you know, we're you might as well, you might as well give these details.
Speaker 3 00:49:28 Yeah, let's just do it. So Tuesday through Sunday, um, our only closed day is Monday and weekdays we're open 11 to four weekends, 10 to five, and our events happen just like all the time. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:49:40 All the time. Well, Marissa, thank you so much for being my guest on sustainability now.
Speaker 3 00:49:45 Yeah. It's been so fun talking with you. Thank you for inviting us to, to share more about the museum and
Speaker 2 00:49:51 What's the museum's website?
Speaker 3 00:49:52 Santa Cruz museum.org.
Speaker 2 00:49:56 Okay. Well thanks once again.
Speaker 3 00:49:58 Yeah. Thank you, Ronnie.
Speaker 2 00:50:01 If you'd like to listen to previous shows, you can find them at k squid.org/sustainability now and Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Pockets among other podcast sites. So thanks for listening and thanks to all the staff and volunteers who make Case Squid your community radio station and keep it going. And so until next, every other Sunday, sustainability now
Speaker 1 00:50:31 Good planets a hot final zones. The tropic climbs through current and thriving season winds blowing some breathing trees, strong on safe sunshine. Good planets are hard to find.
Speaker 0 00:50:58 Good planet.
