Cheney Students Facing A Mammoth Task Plan To Designate Official State Fossil On Brink Of Extinction In Olympia

The 11-foot, ivory-tusked Columbian woolly mammoth seems to be no match for Sen. Bob McCaslin.

It looks as though the 10,000-year-old extinct mammoth will fail to become Washington’s official state fossil despite a three-year effort by a tenacious group of Cheney students.

The bill is sitting in the Senate Government Operations Committee, chaired by McCaslin, R-Spokane. Friday is the deadline for all bills to be out of committee.

As chairman, McCaslin has the authority to determine which bills will be discussed. So far, the mammoth has been ignored.

McCaslin could not be reached for comment this week.

Fifth-graders at Windsor Elementary School in Cheney researched the beast and persuaded Rep. Larry Sheahan, R-Rosalia, to introduce a state fossil bill.

Cheney Superintendent Phil Snowdon sent a letter to Gov. Gary Locke on Friday, hoping to resurrect the mammoth’s chances.

“Much like the mammoth, the bill fell prey to the ‘survival of the fittest’ process in our state Capitol,” Snowdon wrote Locke. “Whatever you can do to help our children see that the legislative process does work for everyone … would be greatly appreciated.”

Sara Aebly, a teacher at Windsor who has been involved in the effort since the beginning, said McCaslin won’t schedule a hearing on the bill.

An aide from the senator’s office said McCaslin hasn’t made a decision on the bill but he believes it should be in the Education Committee - not Government Operations.

The aide also said that many other bills have to be heard in committee and McCaslin believes the governor should be able to deem the mammoth the state fossil.

Aebly said students are disappointed and discouraged that the bill seems on the brink of extinction.

Student Chris Pineo thought of the idea three years ago after discovering that Washington, like 20 other states, doesn’t have an official fossil. More research showed that no dinosaur remains ever have been unearthed in the state.

So Aebly’s class chose the mammoth, a creature that once roamed the Pacific Northwest.

During the 1997 Legislature, the bill was held up because of a technicality between the House and Senate. Pineo testified then in support of the measure at a House hearing.

“I’m really disappointed that it’s not passing. It doesn’t cost any money or anything,” he said.

The students are engaged in a last-ditch letter-writing campaign and have written this week to committee members, asking them to urge McCaslin to give the bill a chance.

Letters also have been directed to governors across the country, fourth-grader Carli Jones said.

“We tell them about how we want the woolly mammoth to be our fossil,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos