Slater Museum of Natural History

Naturalist highlight of the week archive:  January 9

The Slater Museum of Natural History: a great resource in Vashon's backyard

The Slater Museum of Natural History (part of the University of Puget Sound campus) is located in Tacoma, an easy bus ride (#11) from the Pt. Defiance ferry terminal.  This museum has collections of species from all over the world with a special emphasis on Puget Sound. While there are no interpretive exhibits currently, construction on interpretive exhibits will begin this summer (2012). 

Currently the museum website has plenty of interesting pages for looking up animals and plants found on Vashon.  The museum has put together a naturalist curriculum for 4th and 5th grade, as well as a biodiversity page. They also have many educational videos on nature in the Puget Sound. 

Vashon's own Gary Shugart is Collections manager at the museum. If you find dead birds/mammals on Vashon that you think the museum might be interested in preserving, or if you have questions about particular wildlife specimens that the museum might have Gary is a great resource (gshugart@pugetsound.edu).