Newsletter title

January 2010

In This Edition

Arctic Transformation, New Life for Old

—Alun Anderson

When I was a postdoc, I was often short of money and used to earn a little extra cash by telling fortunes using a pack of 15th-century tarot cards. Like other practitioners, I was always praying that one card would not appear. It shows a grinning skeleton carrying a giant scythe standing above a field littered with severed heads. It is card number 13, Death, and few customers reward you generously after they encounter it.

Although I know the card well, I was still surprised when an image of it popped into my mind out on the Arctic seas, in the middle of a large field of broken ice floes some 1200 kilometres from the North Pole. I was in a ship that was cruising slowly off the long, low, snow-streaked island of Svenskeøya on the eastern side of Svalbard, researching a book about the Arctic.…. Read the remainder of the New Scientist magazine article by following this link: Melting Arctic: Forget polar bears, worry about humans.

Even if you don’t have the patience to read the entire article, go there and read the last two paragraphs.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

The total number of visitors signing in during October was 615. There were 35 states (586) represented with the highest counts after Oklahoma (408) being California (29), Kansas (15) and Missouri and Texas (12). There were 13 foreign countries with a total of 29 people. Just a little history concerning number of visitors in October, we had 619 in 2006, 688 in 2007, 724 in 2008, so the 615 for 2009 is low.

The total number of visitors signing in during November was 427. There were 32 states (411) represented with the highest counts after Oklahoma (283) being Texas (15), Kansas (11) and Missouri (10). There were 16 international visitors from 8 countries. The history for November shows 396 visitors in 2007 and 560 in 2008. The count was not available in 2006.

We had a visitor from North Dakota in October, so Wyoming is the only state that has not been represented this year.

Please remind the visitors to sign the guest register.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

We have done well this year by managing to reduce by half, from last year, the number of days that the Visitor’s Center is closed to the public. Let’s do the same next year and again reduce the number of days closed by half. Being open all season long would be a good excuse for a party on the lawn in front of the Bunkhouse during some balmy spring or fall weather.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

 

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Visitor’s Center Latitude & Longitude

Here is the latitude and longitude of the Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for entry into their GPS navigation device.

Kiosk Maintenance

The manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning the touch-screen recommend use of a soft dry cloth only. This proved inadequate for smeared fingerprints. Soft-paper kitchen towels work well, slightly damp with a small drop of soft handsoap. Application of a dry kichen towel removes any residual moisture.

Over time, a matter of several weeks continuous operation, I have noticed that the calibration of the touch-screen drifts away from the initial set-point. If you notice that the cursor isn’t under your finger when you touch the screen then restart the kiosk by unplugging it from the wall, waiting a few moments and then re-inserting the power plug. It will restart and recalibrate.

This link points to the complete Kiosk Maintenance Manual.

Back Issues

Back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to February 2009, can be found in the two green and one blue-black zip-binders, stored in the Perspex rack by the file cabinet in the office of the Visitor’s Center.

Newsletter Publication

Deadline for submission of articles for inclusion in the newsletter is the 10th of each month. Publication date is on the 15th. All docents, Nature Conservancy staff, university scientists, philosophers, and historians are welcome to submit articles and pictures about the various preserves in Oklahoma, but of course the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in particular.