CSBR: Natural History: Securing, Expanding, and Making Accessible the Roosevelt Wild Life Collections at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Suny College Of Environmental Science And Forestry, Syracuse NY

Investigators

Abstract

1561706: CSBR: Natural History: Securing, Expanding, and Making Accessible the Roosevelt Wild Life Collections at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry The Roosevelt Wild Life Collections (RWLC) at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), named for and endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt, is an active repository of research specimens documenting North American (particularly northeastern) biodiversity. It is also a collection that is central to one of the most heavily subscribed graduate and undergraduate organismal biology education programs in the United States. This project will secure and make accessible the RWLC bird, mammal and parasite specimens in modern space-saving cabinetry within a new, centrally located campus collections center. This center will catalyze a campus-wide initiative that connects SUNY-ESF students from underrepresented groups, as "Collections Ambassadors," to research, education, and leadership in environmental biology. A graduate student (Collections Assistant) will be trained in curatorial techniques and will make high-resolution images web-accessible in order to share them with Syracuse inner city high school students and ignite excitement about nature by viewing it up-close. These collections and natural science educational connections will be important for students' career development. The public will be able to tour and view the collections through large windows onto the collections research space. As our nation's biodiversity declines, societal need for natural history collections increases. However, the foundation for collections accessibility and future expansion is security. Many of RWLC vertebrate specimens date to the 1800s and early 1900s and current cabinetry is not much younger. Under present conditions, specimens are inaccessible due to overcrowding in inadequate and poorly sealing cabinets, pests, and lack of digitization. This project leverages a state award to finish a large climate-controlled space within an existing new building, which will house growing and heavily used collections and facilitate their digitization. The collections move will involve quantitative assessment, stabilization, and integrated pest management of specimens, as well as curation and data management training of Collections Ambassadors (undergraduate interns) and the Collections Assistant. As part of the reorganization, specimens will be re-arranged and digitized. The new drawers of digitized specimens and modern specimen arrangement will be the basis for collections-based research for generations of SUNY-ESF's emerging environmental leaders. Many of the RWLC's specimens are from New York's "forever wild" Adirondack Park, beloved by the RWLC's namesake President Theodore Roosevelt. Project results will be made available on the web (www.esf.edu/rwls/) and digitized specimen data will be shared with iDigBio (www.idigbio.org).