Geologists and collectors favor some unfavored places—by definition, exposures of bare rock are not where the general public likes to go—and these places have a way of being taken away for some higher and better use. In West Paterson, New Jersey, the abandoned UBC Quarry is known for its dinosaur tracks and collectible minerals, but the town and owners would rather blow it up, fill it in and build a bunch of condos there. The Early Jurassic site has been called "the most important site in New Jersey" for this time period. Last month a petition went up to save the quarry that now has almost 2000 signatures from around the world. I have a note in to the petition's creator, John McCauley, asking for an update.
In many states, trees and wildlife have some legal weight of their own in influencing land-use decisions, but fossils and rock exposures have little or no standing. Only the public can start to change that.
Related:
The Geoheritage Movement
Geo-Travel
World Heritage Sites of geologic importance
Comments
That was on the Paleo List last month, seems like a good thing to save, and I urge folks to sign it. Too many sites are disappearing due to construction,
I am still disappointed we couldn’t save our local vertebrate site. We salvaged what we could, but the rest went for fill on a new road. The land owner and construction outfit, even refused Carnegie Museum, who visited the site and wanted to excavate part of it. dave
Update on the UBC Quarry tracksite. The site of the dinosaur tracks has been bulldozed over and is no forever lost. We saved as many tracks from this site as we could over the last 3 years but were unsuccessful in saving the site for future generations.