The Lumberjack

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Community

Media Credit: Photo submitted by Andy Gottscho Andy Gottscho's pet California Mountain Kingsnake,

If you walked with Andy Gottscho through logging debris on the Frisbee golf course near Humboldt State University, every wood chunk could be revealed as a home to something amazing.

A biology student at Humboldt State, Gottscho looked under redwood debris on a Wednesday afternoon in Arcata. He stepped from one chunk of wood to another. He rolled every wood chunk towards himself. It's a safety precaution for rattlesnake season, he said. But there were no rattlesnakes. It is the middle of salamander season.

On March 1, Gottscho talked at the Humboldt State University Natural History Museum as a participant in Reptile and Amphibian Discovery Day.

"Humboldt County is one of the best places in the world to look for salamanders," Gottscho said.

Talking before Discovery Day, Gottscho said he hopes to teach people the differences between lizards, salamanders and newts. Gottscho said he also hopes to explain how to save harmless snakes by correctly identifying rattlesnakes. He hopes to talk about the Klamath River Basin during past ice ages, and other subjects.

Sharyn Marks, a Humboldt State herpetology professor, said that for Discovery Day, Humboldt State students will display about 45 species of amphibians and reptiles at the museum.

In past years, the March 1 event has drawn about 500 people, Marks said. She said the event is for both adults and kids. People who attend Discovery Day at the museum may choose from taking a class, checking out an art table, having their faces painted or listening to a talk from someone like Gottscho.

Melissa Zielinski, the director of the Natural History Museum, said that last year visitors to the museum came from 30 states and 11 foreign countries. She said that annually, about 18 to 20 thousand people come to the museum.

To get more children involved, the museum operates a program that trains people to work with school children. These people are called docents. The docents lead the children through activities at the museum. Gottscho is scheduled to be training docents in his area of expertise.

Unlike the school children, not all local people have been through the doors of the museum.

Museum director Melissa Zielinski said kids are not likely to visit museums if their parents don't take them.

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