Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory Wants Google Fiber
Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory (SNCO) was created, under a different name, when the community of Sunriver was founded in the 1968. During its more than 45-year history SNCO has served the residents of Sunriver and its thousands of visitors each year with environmental information, nature walks, opportunities to view astronomical objects, educational programs for local school children and their teachers, flora and fauna identification, and close interaction with a small collection of birds of prey that are indigenous to Central Oregon. In addition, we conduct a research program on local amphibians. With our mission to inspire present and future generations to cherish and understand our nature world, SNCO is well positioned to show how we can all live sustainably with nature and has been doing so for decades. It is a 501.c.3 organization with buildings on its own land in the heart of the Sunriver Community.
We conduct a multi-faceted program in two general areas. Our Nature Center division operates from an exhibit hall which contains mounted specimens of indigenous animals, such as beaver, squirrels, owls, and porcupines; live reptiles and amphibians, such as snakes, lizards, and frogs; and a significant collection of meteorites. Our naturalists have offices in this hall, and from this location conduct nature walks (summer and winter) close by and to more distant locations. Along the exterior of the building are mews that house birds of prey that we are rehabilitating or whose original injuries preclude their ever successfully living in the wild. We recently acquired a blind golden eagle which is being incorporated into our permanent collection. Some 10,000 visitors come through this exhibit hall during a typical year, individuals and families who are vacationing in Sunriver.
Near the Nature Center hall is our Observatory, housing over 20 telescopes that are available to the public for viewing. Included in this array is a 20” research-grade scope and a pair of solar telescopes. This equipment, combined with the mandated low ambient light from the Sunriver community and our elevation of over 4,000 ft, yields perhaps the nation’s best public viewing of planets, stars, nebula, and other sky objects. The Observatory is open six nights a week in summer, offering lectures followed by viewing for over 8,000 visitors annually.
The Observatory has a connection to NASA’s educational program, operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, which periodically brings speakers and programs to the facility. For young children, a summer model rocket program is very popular.
The research program includes studies of the behavior and ecological requirements of the Oregon Spotted Frog, a candidate currently under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for endangered species listing. The Nature Center’s close proximity to some of the best remaining habitat and a stable population of these frogs offers a unique opportunity to study these frogs in ways that cannot be done elsewhere. The result has been the publication of several important papers in peer reviewed journals.
The educational program of SNCO brings hundreds of elementary school children to our grounds for lectures, tours, and experiments and also takes our naturalists out to schools for classroom presentations. We have structured our offerings so that they fulfill State of Oregon science education guidelines.
With the availability of the proposed Google ultra-high speed network, a number of exciting possibilities open up to SNCO.
Webcams could be used to view our animals and Sunriver wildlife hotspots. Such cameras on our animals would provide exciting close-up action views for visitors and would be easy for our staff to monitor. Having wildlife webcams trained on interesting animals or locations, such as the bald eagle nest near Harper Bridge and the Great Meadow for coyotes, deer, and birds would give people unique perspectives on what’s happening in and around the community. High speed internet would allow the real-time seamless viewing that is lacking in many webcams.
A radio tracking or banding monitor for various animals would be possible with high speed internet and antenna equipment. Our lead research scientist is very interested in knowing when the Oregon Spotted Frogs are moving through the waterways for breeding; having real-time tracking would be a huge research and educational benefit. Similarly, webcams could observe and track dynamic species such as river otters: we could set up motion sensors and cameras to monitor when otters are entering Lake Aspen and the Sun River (both adjacent to the Nature Center) to alert guests to the rare sighting of these interesting animals. A number of visitors mention their great interest in seeing these rather uncommon animals; knowing when they are visible would be a great inducement for visiting the Nature Center. The high speed internet connection would allow notices to be sent in real time to kiosks at the Sunriver Resort and the Sunriver Mall, where visitors congregate, so that visitors could quickly take advantage of a sighting opportunity.
Tapping into bird banding data would also be a great tracking application of high speed internet. Being able to see where banded or radio tagged birds are at all times would be an exciting, unique, and informative experience.
We are on the verge of expanding our meteorological offerings. In addition to graphic displays of the current weather data that have been being recorded at SNCO for many years, a high speed connection would allow Sunriver to be part of a climate and weather data collection and dissemination network. Having different stations in and around Sunriver would highlight how diverse our daily weather patterns can be.
A Google connection would allow interactive programs with other organizations, e.g., National Geographic, Discover Channel, and Animal Planet. We would be able to bring in lecture series from other organizations to be shown live here. And we would be able to share visually programs going on in different parts of the Sunriver Community, such as the Mall, the Resort, and the Nature Center.
The Observatory program could be enhanced in many ways with a Google high speed connection. The existing relationship with NASA & JPL has been mentioned. The Google connection would allow dozens of lectures given by scientists and astronauts in other parts of the country to be shown live here at the Sunriver Observatory. This would be an enormously popular and highly educational offering.
The connection would allow live telescope feeds from our Observatory to other locations, including images from the solar telescope or the optical nighttime telescopes, further enhancing our educational efforts as well as providing exciting images of extraordinary cosmological events to a public that retains its interest in space exploration.
Our evening observing programs are obviously weather dependent, and often visitors come to the Observatory from the Resort or nearby communities only to discover that cloud conditions at our location are different enough from where they started that there can be no viewing that night. A webcam at the Observatory, connected to monitors at other locations or to the Internet, would provide potential viewers either the good news that a meteor shower would be visible or the bad news that clouds would preclude viewing that night, saving them from unnecessary driving and the disappointment of going home without getting to view the night skies.
Observatory personnel participate in the national search for new comets and asteroids and also take high quality photos of interesting cosmological events. The Google connection would allow the results of these activities, including large photos and graphics, to be shared in real time with members, visitors, and schools.
And the Google connection would allow web updates on research programs and program updates on events sponsored by the observatory, such as Astronomy Week and the Mt. Bachelor Star Party.
In addition to support of our Nature Center and Observatory programs, the high speed connection would support enhancements to our general operations. During fund-raising events that include a live auction, people could participate in the auction from their homes, being able to see the items and make real-time bids to purchase items.
The various lectures held by the organization, averaging about one every other week, could be offered to our membership over the Internet, greatly expanding the audience for these high quality offerings. For example, the current year-long series commemorating the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, is severely limited in audience size by the physical size of our Education Building. Those people turned away would be able to observe the lectures, delivered by University of Oregon professors, as well as ask questions of the presenters. Another example would be the Nature and the Performing Arts series, which is entertaining, very popular and educational.
We would develop blogs and podcasts about SNCO activities which would be readily available to our membership and the public, increasing our contact with people concerned with protecting and enhancing our environment.
SNCO is currently guided by a strategic plan which is propelling the organization to an enhanced position in the Sunriver Community through up-graded exhibits, expanded programs, and renovations of some of our facilities. The Google high-speed fiber connection would enable us to expand our programs enormously, thereby inspiring greater numbers of members and visitors to cherish and understand our natural world.
