County Selects Hemet CA: Museum to Handle Dinosaur Bones Found Locally

From My Valley News, Fallbrook, CA: County Selects Hemet Museum to Handle Dinosaur Bones Found Locally

RIVERSIDE - Dinosaur bones unearthed in Riverside County will have a home at the Western Science Center in Hemet, in accordance with a policy enacted today by the Board of Supervisors.

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, in whose district the museum is located, won unanimous board support to direct all future fossil finds to the repository instead of the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, which has received paleontological artifacts recovered locally for years under the Riverside County general plan.

The Western Science Center, located near Diamond Valley Lake, opened in 2006 and now has the resources to study, catalogue and showcase fossils located within the county, according to museum spokesman Bill Marshal.

"We're ready, willing and able -- with 7,000 square feet of storage space -- to help in any way we can," Marshal told the supervisors.

Stone introduced his "Safeguard Artifacts Being Excavated in Riverside County" or SABER policy in recognition of the facility's curating successes, including the recovery last year of the skeletal remains of a saber-toothed tiger in San Timoteo Canyon, where a construction crew stumbled onto them while laying the foundation for a building.

"The Western Science Center has been very proactive in getting collections from other museums," Stone said. "It's a magnificent museum for our county."

Supervisor John Benoit and board Chairman Bob Buster both questioned whether the center could end up overloaded by too many artifacts. Though noting the museum was a "great asset," Benoit raised concerns that a recent cut in staffing could slow down the curative process.

"We did lay off one of three qualified curators," replied Marshal. "But we have a qualified archaeologist and a paleontologist. It kind of saddens me when people say we're not qualified when we are."

Buster underscored that the change in county policy would not imply public funding to support the center in the future, and Marshal acknowledged there were no strings attached.