HomeMy WebLinkAboutHDP 96-14; Taylor Made Golf; Hillside Development Permit (HDP) (5)P- homas A. Demere - San Diego Natural History Museum Dept. Paleontological Services
SAN DIEGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
BALBOA PARK - SAN DIEGO SOCIETY OF NATUR4L HISTORY - ESTABLISHED 1874
2 May 1997
Mr. Greg Hamann
Hamann Consolidated, Inc.
475 West Bradley Avenue
El Cajon, CA 92020
RE: Paleontological Resource Mitigation: Taylor Made Golf project site grading
Dear Greg:
Please find enclosed our proposal to provide paleontological resource mitigation
services during grading of the Taylor Made Golf project site. The work will be conducted
by staff of the Department of Paleontological Services at the Museum. The Museum is
run and operated by the San Diego Society of Natural History, which is a private non-
profit scientific organization incorporated in 1874.
sandstones, siltstones, and claystones of the Point Loma Formation. The Point Loma
Formation is known to contain very significant fossil remains of terrestrial and marine
organisms including dinosaurs, sharks, ammonites, crabs, clams, and exotic snails. This
rock unit was deposited approximately 75 million years ago during the latter part of the
Cretaceous Period.
The bedrock unit that is being encountered during the grading of the site consists of
Our proposed mitigation program is aimed at recognizing and recovering fossil
remains from the project site. This recovery will be conducted as a construction mitigation
program. To accomplish this we will employ the following procedures:
[ 11 monitor the grading operations and inspect cuts for unearthed fossil remains;
[Z] salvage remains as they are uncovered;
[3] document the stratigraphic and geologic context of salvaged fossil remains;
[4] remove fossils from the project site:
[5] clean, repair, and sort salvaged fossils for eventual donation to the San Diego
Natural History Museum;
[6] prepare a final report surrmarizing the results of the mitigation program. This
report will include a discussion of methods employed, fossils recovered, geologic
context of fossil remains, and significance of mitigation program.
We realize that time is a critical factor on grading projects and we always attempt
to remove fossils from the cuts quickly and safely.
Thomas A. Domere San Diego Natural History Museum Dspt. Paleontological Services -
I have broken the field time down into monitoring and salvage. Monitoring
involves looking for unearthed fossils, while salvage involves recovery of fossils. Often
these two activities coincide. However, occasionally a specimen will require a more
extended salvage.
program. Getting the fossils out of the ground is only the first step. They then have to be
removed from their enclosing rock matrix and stabilized so that they can be placed into a
scientific institution for permanent storage and/or display. Cataloging and storage
represent the fulal phase and involve production of a specimen inventory and storage of the
fossils at the Museum.
Fossil salvage is not an exact discipline and we can never be certain of the outcome
The preparation portion of the proposal is designed to complete the mitigation
of a mitigation program until after the grading is well underway. For this reason, our
scope of work and proposed budget represents a not-to-exceed effort and cost. The only
fixed costs are those associated with monitoring and a final report. In the event that no
fossils are unearthed during construction then the other elements of the mitigation program
(salvage, screenwashing, preparation, and curation) will be unnecessary.
Please look our proposal over and let me know if you have any questions
concerning the scope of work and budget.
Sincerely yours,
Thomas A. Demtre, Ph.D.
Director, Department of Paleontological Services