The workshop is scheduled for October 12-14, 2012 and is limited to 13 participants to ensure plenty of personalized coaching. It begins at noon on Friday and ends on Sunday afternoon. Tuition includes three days of instruction, two nights in-park motel lodging at the Far View Lodge, and all meals including two dinners at the famed Metate Room Restaurant. For further information and to register, visit the event page here, or call 800-305-6053.

Workshop participants will come away with once-in-a-lifetime images of several of Mesa Verde’s stunning cliff dwellings. Participants will visit sites around the park at times designed to capture ideal lighting conditions, and will work on compositional skills for compelling images. The group will visit some archeological sites at hours when they’re closed to the general public, and will also visit Mug House, a beautiful cliff dwelling that is not normally open for visitors. Pacing will be leisurely so everyone gains as much as possible from their experience.

Since 2006, the Mesa Verde Museum Association has offered visitors a variety of in-depth learning experiences in Mesa Verde National Park. Through free or low-cost seminars, workshops, lectures, and special programs, visitors of all ages gain a new, behind-the-scenes understanding of Mesa Verde and the Four Corners. Proceeds from all association programs support Mesa Verde National Park.

For further information including photographic equipment needs and rates, or to register, click here, e-mail the Association at info@mesaverde.org or call 800-305-6053.

The bicycle event previously planned for late September this year has had to be postponed due to scheduling conflicts. However, MVF is exploring other new programs and events for families and outdoor enthusiasts. We hope to have some planned for 2013.

Finally, the foundation has been working with the Mesa Verde Museum Association (MVMA) to offer an expanded Mesa Verde Association membership program. Members at all levels, including newly expanded upper level membership categories, now are enjoying benefits and programs that not only are great for members but allow MVF and MVMA to continue to grow as important partners to Mesa Verde National Park. Details of the benefits associated with these new levels of support will be announced soon!

When most people think of Mesa Verde National Park, the first thing that comes to mind typically is Southwest archeology. But did you know that Mesa Verde also has long been on the Audubon Society’s list of Colorado Important Bird Areas? This national park provides breeding habitat for several bird species of conservation concern. In 1928, Congress called upon the National Park Service to protect Mesa Verde’s birds and other wildlife and the wooded habitats that support them. These and other park birds are part of Landbird Conservation Plans from the Partners in Flight Program, and are noted as international migratory birds of “Continental Importance.” With this in mind, Mesa Verde has initiated these bird monitoring programs.

The Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) project involves the placement of several large mist-nets in the pinyon-juniper woodlands. During the early morning hours, from May through July, the nets are regularly checked and captured birds are carefully extracted from the nets, thoroughly measured and documented, and then banded with a sequentially numbered leg band before release. The MAPS project will provide essential demographic information at the population level on a suite of migratory bird species shared with countries south of the U.S. border. This capture data is reinforced with substantial numbers of direct field surveys, called point-counts, performed by trained observers. This demographic information will provide park managers with science-based information essential to identifying prime sources of life-cycle problems for these species.

A second park project, managed through the Hummingbird Monitoring Network (HMN), captures, measures, and bands some of Mesa Verde’s breeding and migrating hummingbirds. These tiny bundles of feather and muscle return year after year to Mesa Verde, allowing the NPS to track the numbers of returnees and gather other information. The Rufous Hummingbird, a species shared with Canada and Central America, has seen a species-wide population decline of 63 percent since 1968. Falling bird populations in national parks and elsewhere likely indicate that habitat in tropical wintering grounds, along migration routes, on American breeding grounds, or all of these areas are in need of conservation attention. By increasing its knowledge about the park’s bird life, the NPS hopes to ensure that Mesa Verde’s tropical connection is not broken. For more information, call NPS Natural Resources Manager George San Miguel at 970-529-5069.

Imagine the North American Indians as astronomers carefully watching the heavens, charting the sun through the seasons, or counting the sunrises between successive lunar phases. Then imagine them establishing observational sites and codified systems to pass their knowledge down through the centuries and continually refine it. A few years ago such images would have been abruptly dismissed. Today we are wiser.

Ray A. Williamson’s title describes the exciting archeoastronomical discoveries in the United States in recent decades. Using history, science, and direct observation, Williamson transports the reader into the sky world of the Indians. We visit the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, sit with a Zuni sun priest on the winter solstice, join explorers at the rites of the Hopis and the Navajos, and trek to Chaco Canyon to make direct on-site observations of celestial events.

Paperback; 382 pages, including many illustrations and photographs. $26.99. Click here to purchase your copy today. Proceeds from your purchases support Mesa Verde National Park.

As always, Mesa Verde Association members receive a 20% discount on this item and on all regularly-priced merchandise. Your special coupon code to receive your member discount online has been sent to you separately. Not a member yet? It’s easy to join! Just click here or call us at 1-800-305-6053 or 970-529-4445 for assistance.