WOODLAND PARK — The Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center may have had a bit of a quieter 2020 in the exhibit halls due to COVID, but behind the scenes, this Woodland Park based organization has been adapting and evolving to meet the unique challenges of this past year.
The RMDRC has a lot going on behind the scenes, from excavating new fossil finds, to restoring those finds, creating casts and molds in order to reproduce certain skeletal remains, dismantling and reassembling fossilized skeletons and reproductions, and more.
One of the largest streams of income the RMDRC has is providing skeletal materials and casts to various museums and universities.
Because COVID created a unique stresser on this organization's overall business strategy, the RMDRC placed increase emphasis in 2020 on the development of small retail items such as teeth and claws, providing to private collectors, and developing new casts and molds of dinosaurs and other prehistoric fauna.
"We invested money in developing new assets," stated Mike Triebold, owner of the Resource Center, "new skeletons that we'll be introducing in the future once COVID is over."
One unique challenge the business faced during 2020 was the need to have some staff work from home.
This need and the need to continue work on fossils as well as creating and constructing casts lead to a number of situations where staff members were working with fossils or reproductions out of their garages.
According to Triebold, continuing to pursue meaningful work and develop new products has translated to the company being able to maintain the same size of staff that they would have during a normal year while also being well positioned going forward.
"IF your actively pushing hard to be ready for the future during the tough times, you put yourself in a position to do well when things finally do improve, and that's what we're trying to do."
The RMDRC is open to visitors and continues to follow safety guidelines in order to keep visitors and staff safe.
To learn more about the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center, CLICK HERE.
