Propose New Museum

Bryn J. Mader, a paleontologist and the founder of the yet-to-be-built Long Island Natural History Museum, which he expects would house, among other things, the skeletons of small dinosaurs and extinct mammals, wants to bring a mobile rain forest and a 40,000-square-foot branch of his museum to the South Fork.

Half the museum would be devoted to dinosaurs and other extinct vertebrates. Although relatively small, the organization already has a collection that includes what may be the largest number of African pterodactyls in the world as well as small animal specimens previously unknown to science - creatures the size of mice or shrews.

The museum also would contain a collection of contemporary and fossil invertebrates including various insects and arachnids - a beetle as large as a sparrow, for example, and a huge replica of a ground spider, Dr. Mader said.

Vertebrate Focus

Dr. Mader and his board plan to create a giant model of an ant colony in the museum, and a vertebrate biological exhibit will explore "everything with a backbone" from humans to squirrels, he said.

While Long Island is to be home to the museum, Dr. Mader stressed this week that its contents would be "international in scope." Several of the scientists, artists, and designers planning the museum have worked with the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Dr. Mader was a collections registrar in its recent mammals department and also worked in vertebrate paleontology there.

These particular exhibits have been chosen because of their demonstrated ability to draw visitors. "The museum has to be financially successful," Dr. Mader said.

Long-Term Goal

His plan for Long Island is to open two branches of the museum - one on the South Fork and another in western Suffolk or eastern Nassau County. The museum will also construct a model of a Central American rain forest inside a tractor-trailer to use as a teaching tool for schools, he said.

Ultimately, the museum would build an enormous geodesic dome to house forest environments and a robotic dinosaur exhibit, but that, Dr. Mader said, is many years down the road. He said Robbie Braun of East Hampton, who builds models of such creatures as dinosaurs for films and museums, was helping plan the long-term project.

For now, Dr. Mader is concentrating on the mobile rain forest and the South Fork branch of his museum. He said he needed $15 million to get these two projects under way.

State Funding

Dr. Mader believes the timing is perfect to create a world-class natural history museum on the Island. As to funding, he said the state had $425 million available for "community enhancement" and that State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator Kenneth LaValle had agreed to lobby for some of it for the museum.

He had hoped to build the first branch in East Hampton, but said he had found zoning and land costs prohibitive. Having recently conferred with members of the Town Board, he was pointed toward the Montauk Playhouse, a rambling and dilapidated early 20th-century building on Edgemere Road. He said "no" to that too.

But Montauk, Dr. Mader said, was too far east to draw visitors and involve schools from western Long Island. In addition, it would cost millions to rehabilitate the structure. Instead, he is looking toward Southampton Town and will meet with that Town Board this week to explore the options.

"Mobile Expedition"

Design and engineering of the museum is expected to take two years and cost $4 million. Building it will cost another $10 million. If the state comes through with funding, Dr. Mader said, the first step would be to construct a $1 million "mobile expedition experience." A 48-foot tractor-trailer would be able to travel to schools all over Long Island.

This first project would serve as a "practical demonstration of what the museum is capable of," Dr. Mader said. Stepping into the truck, students would enter a replica of a tropical rain forest with a small Mayan temple, plants, partially robotic animals, animal sounds, and forest smells.

Their task would be to help an imaginary team of scientists identify and study various specimens. Dr. Mader also described field stations within the truck where children would be able to examine materials, collect data, and do rubbings of archeological etchings.

Disembodied

"These will be practical exercises in deductive reasoning," the paleontologist said. His hope is that this hands-on learning experience will help spark a lifelong interest in science. The American Museum of Natural History and the Los Angeles County Museum both have mobile learning units similar to the one he is planning.

Right now, Dr. Mader refers to the Long Island museum as a "disembodied entity." Those involved in it are working on establishing a research collection, including the items mentioned above, along with things like mammoth hair and insects in amber. Some of the collection would be loaned free of charge to teachers.

"This is a once in a lifetime thing. . . . The chances of all these people being together are kind of slim."

His enthusiasm for the project makes the physical location seem only a minor detail and one he's certain will fall into place. Along with East Hampton Town he has also explored, but decided against, a location in the Suffolk County parks system.