Envicom supports the first ever
National Park Service Fossil Day Event!
In support of the National Park Service’s first ever Fossil Day event, the NPS and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County asked Envicom to be a presenter at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area visitor center. Envicom presented information from their LAUSD San Pedro High School discovery of several Late Miocene marine bonebeds with millions of fish, shark, sea turtle, and shore bird bones, as well as thousands of coprolites (fossil animal feces). School children and their parents were able to participate in cleaning the coprolites and looking at what they contain under a digital microscope. Hundreds of small fish and invertebrate bones are in the coprolites, eaten by dolphins, sharks, and other marine animals 9-million years ago, including by megalodon sharks, the largest sharks that ever existed!
Envicom Team finds Treasure Trove of Marine Fossils
found under San Pedro High School
Learn how Envicom Corporation is part of a construction project at San Pedro High School that has revealed a treasure trove of marine fossils from L.A.’s prehistoric past.
The most ancient fossils in the collection are thought to be as many as 9 million years old and date to a time when the Palos Verdes Peninsula was covered by ocean.
Links to Articles/Features
BBC News (Spetember 19, 2024)
The Guardian (Great Britain Newspaper)
LA Times (September 13, 2024)
Business Today (India’s business news magazine)
WPLG Local 10 (ABC Network affiliate in Miami)
NY Post (September 11, 2024)
Yahoo News (September 10, 2024)
AOL.com (September 10, 2024)
LAUSD Press Conference (September 9, 2024)
FOX 11 News (Fossils Interview)
KCAL/KCBS News (Broadcast Clip)
LAist (September 9, 2024)
Daily Breeze (September 11, 2024)
Dr. Wayne Bischoff (Envicom Corporation - Director of Cultural Resources) pictured with Dr. Austin Hendy (Natural History Museum - Assistant Curator) and Milad Esfahani (San Pedro - Student).
Envicom’s On-Call Paleontologist & Archaeologist, Nicole Diem.
A vertebrae fossil of an extinct dolphin species.
Rocks Containing Thousands of Fossils from Envicom’s 2023 Fossil Bonebed Discovery are Installed at Cabrillo Aquarium in San Pedro, California.
Envicom discovered in 2023 the largest marine fossil bonebed in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Dr. Wayne Bischoff of Envicom has been working with staff from the Natural History Museum of Los Angles County to document the Late Miocene (8.7-million years ago) discovery. The millions of fossils found at the discovery site came from fish, sharks, dolphins, whales, sea turtles, seabirds, invertebrates, and ocean and shore plants. Many of the species discovered are now extinct, but many can still be found off California’s coast today.
As part of the discovery response, fossil rocks and samples will be provided to several educational institutions, including the Cabrillo Aquarium, for public display, interpretation, and education. Six large fossil rocks were recently set up in the Aquarium’s public garden, which was announced in the Bulletin of the Southern California Paleontological Society. Dr. Bischoff and Dr. Austin Hendy of the Natural History Museum will also be talking about the discovery at the Natural History Museum on February 4 th , 2024.
The Oak Canyon Community Park Duck Pond
Above: Red Eared Slider, held in a collection bin prior to its transfer to a nearby turtle sanctuary. Below: Photos below depict turtle round-up and turtle education to local volunteers.
The Oak Canyon Community Park Duck Pond, located within Oak Canyon, was burned and damaged during the 2018 Woolsey Fire and during subsequent winter rains, sediment, ash and debris washed down into and filled the ponds, culvert and Medea Creek channel. The Oak Canyon Community Park Duck Pond Project, led by the Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District (RSRPD), aims to restore the pond area to pre-Woolsey fire conditions.
There are a different species that previously resided in the Oak Canyon Pond, including the red eared slider, and southwestern pond turtle. The Southwestern pond turtle (Emys marmorata) is a native turtle species and is threatened by the invasive red eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) which often compete with southwestern pond turtles for food and transmit diseases. One of the Project goals was to round-up turtles prior to initiation of construction and transport any non-native red eared sliders to a turtle sanctuary in Arroyo Grande, and relocate southwestern pond turtles with the assistance of a designated biologist and turtle expert.
On June 30, 2022, Envicom assisted over a dozen community volunteers and Park staff members in a turtle round-up. Volunteers geared up in rubber boots and gloves, and waded through the mud-soaked pond area to round up any turtles with hand nets. Multiple red-eared sliders were captured during the round-up for transfer to the sanctuary, and the biologist provided turtle education for local volunteers.
Our unique cloud-based GIS platform
Envicom is excited to announce the launch of Nexus, which enables us to deliver sophisticated GIS applications for unique data insights, including web mapping applications and data dashboards that provide complete situational awareness, geospatial analysis, custom fleet management, and highly configurable, automated data reports. Coming soon we will also offer a native mobile application for map-based data collection with offline capability (iOS & Android). At Envicom, we thrive on using maps and data to solve problems and create opportunities for our clients. Contact us to discuss your unique project needs. Proudly partnered with the MapGears team of developers, who help us make geospatial magic happen.
#gis #webmaps #geospatial #envicom #envicomgis #mapgears #opensource
Envicom's GIS Team Assists with COVID-19 Mapping Project
GISCorps is an organization that coordinates the voluntary assistance of short-term, highly specialized GIS expertise to improve the well being of developing and transitional communities. Envicom's GIS team has provided their skills on multiple GISCorps projects over the past few years, and so were glad to respond when we received their Mission Recruiting Announcement at the end of March. The request to GISCorps came from ESRI's Disaster Response Team, who need assistance to create and maintain a nationwide dataset of all COVID-19 testing locations, along with up-to-date instructions and information pertinent to each testing site. Envicom's GIS team has adopted Ventura County, CA and we will maintain this important information for our home county until this crisis is over. Public access to COVID-19 Testing Site information is available here:
https://giscorps.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=2ec47819f57c40598a4eaf45bf9e0d16
GIS Interface