Hoping for a miracle: Budget woes forcing closure of Natural History Museum
ARCATA -- Director Melissa Zielinski is hoping a miracle can save Humboldt State University's Natural History Museum.
Sitting amid the museum's diverse collection just an hour after Friday's official announcement that budget woes were forcing the downtown Arcata facility to close at the end of August -- Zielinski said she wasn't willing to give up hope. Not yet.
”I'm hoping we can find some other solution,” she said, looking around at the colorful displays she's helped student interns design over the years. “But it really doesn't rest with the university because the university is in such dire straits right now.”
The museum's only hope is a donor or an outpouring of community support, Zielinski said.
”My plea is if there is somebody out there who really wants this place to stay and is able to fund us, now is the time to step forward,” she said.
The museum, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, was established after HSU bought a world-class fossil collection from Hilda and Tom Maloney of Willows, Calif. According to the university, it was the couple's wish that the collection be displayed for educational purposes, and so the museum was born.
With donations from companies and foundations, it opened its doors on April 26, 1989. It has 500 family memberships and sees about 20,000 visitors a year, Zielinski said. While cherished and appreciated, Zielinski and HSU spokesman Paul Mann both said the museum has been underfunded by outside sources for too many years, despite strong membership numbers, dedicated volunteers, grant-writing efforts and outreach. A museum staff report last fall estimated that an additional $200,000 a year was needed to adequately support and staff the facility. And that was before the budget crisis. Mann said the university would welcome a donor or philanthropist to help keep the doors open. He said closing the museum will save the university about $86,000 per year, counting staff salaries -- and admitted it may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the $12 million the university is struggling to cut from its budget. None of the five staff members are full-time. But there's also the $200,000 per year needed to keep the museum running in a sustainable manner. With the current economic environment, Mann said, it would be difficult for the university to approve filling two upcoming openings on the museum's staff. In the meantime, staff members have had to forgo vacations and make personal sacrifices in order to keep the museum going. ”You just can't ask people to do that forever and ever,” he said. Fieldbrook resident Leslie Wolff was disappointed to hear the news when she arrived at the museum Friday to pick up her daughter Julia, 5, who had spent the day learning about the creatures who make their homes in local tidepools. ”I'm shocked and saddened because the museum is such a resource for the community, the programs are outstanding,” she said. “My daughter has learned so much.” Wolff said many of her friends also depend on the summer programs at the museum, calling the facility “unique and unparalleled.” ”There's nothing else like it in our community,” she said. “They do real science, even for 5-year-olds.” Besides the summer programs and extensive fossil collection, the museum houses mounts of local wildlife like the gray fox and barn owl, an exhibit where children and adults alike can listen to local bird calls, activity boxes, and other hands-on opportunities. There are also displays with live snakes, a rare blue Pacific tree frog and up-close looks at sea anemones and star fish. It also operates as a learning laboratory for HSU students. Gabriel Delgado, who is about to begin his senior year as an environmental science and ecology restoration major at HSU, said Zielinski broke the news to the staff on Thursday. ”It was a shock because this place is great,” he said. “I love seeing the kids come in and their eyes light up. I'm going to be sad when the kids find out and when the members find out. It's going to be heartbreaking news for them.” Over the last year, being at the museum has become more than a job, he said. ”It just feels like a warm, comfy home,” Delgado said. With the sounds of children oohing and aahing during up-close-and-personal looks at sea urchins and star fish echoing in the background, Zielinski spent Friday breaking the news to the museum board, volunteers and members. A plan for packing up the museum and the future of the collection is still being worked out, but Zielinski said she's just not quite ready for that yet. Zielinski, who has been with the museum since 1992, says she can't accept that such a unique resource for the community will just disappear. The staff regrets, but understands, the university's decision, she said. ”There's so many families we have seen grow up here,” Zielinski said. The museum staff just finished a project for local schoolteachers that coordinates activities at the museum with the state's science requirements for students in kindergarten through fourth grade. Plans for the fall programs were under way and a “Prehistoric Ball” fundraiser at the museum was set for October. Now it's all on hold. ”The official word is we're closing at the end of August and I just want to see if there's anything I can do to prevent that,” she said. “But it's out of my hands and it's out of the university's hands. ”Once we're gone, we're gone, and it's going to be a sad thing for the community,” Zielinski said. Kimberly Wear can be reached at 441-0520 or kwear@times-standard.com. FIND OUT MORE: For more information on HSU's Natural History Museum or to help, call 826-4479 or visit its Web site at www.humboldt.edu/~natmus/. To learn more about the university's budget woes, visit www.humboldt.edu/~budget/.
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