2014 Citizen Science Opportunities Announced for Glacier

The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Glacier National Park will continue its Citizen Science Program this summer, offering free research and learning opportunities for the public.

The program trains individuals to identify, observe, and record information on mountain goats, bighorn sheep, pikas, loons, and invasive plants in Glacier National Park. These species have been targeted because of their sensitivity to changes in habitat, human disturbances and, in the case of invasive plants, their threat to native biodiversity. Participants are asked to attend a one-day training session before collecting data for a project. Additional training sessions may be scheduled based on interest. Please contact the Learning Center at 406-888-7986 to sign-up for training or for more information.

High Country Citizen Science
Observe mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and pika behavior at selected sites to assist with population and distribution estimates. These three species are habitat and temperature sensitive and may be affected by climate change.

Training Dates: June 13 or June 27

Common Loon Citizen Science
Gather information on the distribution and reproduction of Common Loons to understand more about population trends and nesting success.

Training Date: June 19

Invasive Plant Citizen Science
Learn to identify five targeted invasive plants and use GPS units to mark their locations while hiking along trails in Glacier National Park. Interested participants in our invasive plant mapping program can be trained in one of two ways:

1. Complete the online training session.
2. Attend Annual Weed Blitz on Tuesday, July 15. Participants will assist Glacier National Park by pulling targeted weeds.

Since 2005, the Glacier National Park Citizen Science Program has utilized trained citizen scientists to collect baseline population data on species of interest in the park. Training provided to participants serves to inform them on threats to native plants and animals that may result from human disturbance, climate change, and invasive species. Perhaps most importantly, the Citizen Science Program helps create an informed group of visitors involved in active stewardship of Glacier National Park.

Funding and support for the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center’s Citizen Science Program is provided by the Glacier National Park Conservancy. For more information on the Citizen Science Program, contact 406-888-7986 or Glac_Citizen_Science@nps.gov, or visit the park website.



Jeff
Hiking in Glacier National Park

Glacier Invites Public to Brown-Bag Seminar

The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Glacier National Park is hosting a free brown-bag lecture on Thursday, July 11 from 12–1pm at the Community Building in West Glacier. The public is invited to join Render and Helen Davis, freelance writers and photographers, who will tell the story of the Civilian Conservation Corps in America's parks, including Glacier National Park.

Render and Helen Davis's recently completed book, Our Mark on This Land: A Guide to the Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps in America's Parks, culminates a decade of research in state and national archives and collections, visits to more than 100 parks across the country, and correspondence with noted experts on the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Join this brown-bag seminar to learn more about the Civilian Conservation Corps and its importance to Glacier National Park.

For more information about the presentation, or the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center, please click here or contact 406-888-5827.


Jeff
Hiking Glacier National Park

2013 Citizen Science Opportunities in Glacier Announced

The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Glacier National Park will continue its Citizen Science Program this summer, offering free research and learning opportunities for the public.

The program trains individuals to identify, observe and record information on mountain goats, pikas, loons, and invasive plants in Glacier National Park. These species have been targeted because of their sensitivity to changes in habitat, human disturbances and, in the case of invasive plants, their threat to native biodiversity. Participants are asked to attend a one-day training session before collecting data for a project. Projects and training dates are listed below. Additional training sessions may be scheduled based on interest. You can contact the Learning Center at 406-888-7986 for more information or to sign-up for training.

High Country Citizen Science

Observe mountain goats and pika behavior at selected sites to assist with population and distribution estimates. Both species are habitat and temperature sensitive and may be affected by climate change. Training Dates: June 7, June 18, June 28 or July 3

Common Loon Citizen Science

Gather information on the distribution and reproduction of Common Loons to understand more about population trends and nesting success. Training Date: June 12

Invasive Plant Citizen Science

Learn to identify five targeted invasive plants and use GPS units to mark their locations while hiking along trails in Glacier National Park. Interested participants in our invasive plant mapping program can be trained in one of two ways:

1. Complete online training session here.

2. Attend Annual Weed Blitz on Tuesday, July 23. Participants will assist Glacier National Park by pulling targeted weeds.

Since 2005, the Glacier National Park Citizen Science Program has utilized trained citizen scientists to collect baseline population data on species of interest in the park. Training provided to participants serves to inform them on threats to native plants and animals that may result from human disturbance, climate change, and invasive species. Perhaps most importantly, the Citizen Science Program helps create an informed group of visitors involved in active stewardship of Glacier National Park.

Funding and support for the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center's Citizen Science Program is provided by the Glacier National Park Conservancy. For more information on the Citizen Science Program, contact 406-888-7986 or Glac_Citizen_Science@nps.gov, or visit http://www.nps.gov/glac/naturescience/ccrlc-citizen-science.htm.


Jeff
Hiking in Glacier.com

Public Invited to View Film About Dark Skies

The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Glacier National Park is hosting a free brown-bag seminar on Thursday, August 23 from 12- 1:30 p.m. at the Community Building in West Glacier. The public is invited to view "The City Dark," an 84-minute documentary film chronicling the disappearance of dark skies. Join David Ingram, Chapter Leader for Dark Skies Northwest, representing the International Dark-Sky Association for an introduction to the film and information about light pollution.

Since its premiere in March 2011, "The City Dark" has been shown at 40 film festivals, winning 9, and seen in over 200 community gatherings. The film blends a humorous, searching tone with poetic footage of the night sky, and is an introduction to the science of dark. The documentary film is also shown every Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at the St. Mary Visitor Center.

This film screening is part of Glacier National Park's summer astronomy program efforts, providing interpretive night sky and solar activity viewing opportunities for the public. Throughout the park dedicated volunteer astronomers provide laser-guided constellation tours and telescope viewing of deep space objects like galaxies, star clusters, planets, and nebulae. The park's astronomy program is supported by The Glacier National Park Fund and Glacier Association.

Glacier National Park is home to some of the darkest skies in the world, providing ideal conditions for viewing opportunities while maintaining critical wildlife and plant habitat for species affected by artificial light. A joint effort between Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and Glacier National Park is being initiated for designation of both parks as an International Dark Sky Park/Preserve so all may experience this vanishing resource.

For more information about the film presentation, or the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center, please click or call 406-888-5827. For information on the International Dark-Sky Association click here, and for information about the park's astronomy program and the ranger-led activities schedule, contact the park at 406-888-7800 or click here.


Jeff
Glacier National Park Hiking

Glacier Park Invites Public to Brown-Bag Seminar

The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Glacier National Park is hosting a free brown-bag lecture on Thursday, August 9 from 12- 1pm at the Community Building in West Glacier. The public is invited to join Dr. E William (Billy) Schweiger who will present a talk on "Long Term Monitoring of Stream Ecological Integrity" in Glacier National Park.

This talk will present preliminary results from efforts that began in 2007 to monitor Glacier National Park's streams by the Rocky Mountain Inventory and Monitoring Network. The program develops and conducts monitoring of key ecological systems using a science based approach focused on long-term management applications.

Included in the seminar will be a brief summary of the status of water chemistry, stream physical habitat and biology along with a summary of data on Didymosphenia geminata ("rock snot") and how this native, but highly invasive, diatom might be a bell weather of coming changes in the park's aquatic ecosystems.

Dr. Schweiger has worked for the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program for the last eight years, helping to develop several ecological monitoring protocols for six National Parks. Prior to working for the National Park Service has was a research scientist for the US Environmental Protection Agency.

For more information about the presentation, or the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center, please visit http://www.nps.gov/glac/naturescience/ccrlc.htm or contact 406-888-7863.


Jeff
Hiking Glacier National Park

Citizen Science Opportunities in Glacier

Since 2005 the Glacier National Park Citizen Science Program has utilized trained park visitors, staff and volunteers to collect scientific information that would otherwise be unavailable to resource managers and researchers due to lack of personnel or funding. The program is coordinated by the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center (CCRLC) based at Glacier.

The CCRLC is currently facilitating three Citizen Science programs, made possible through the generous support of the Glacier National Park Fund:

Common Loons - Field surveys are conducted by citizen scientists at 45 high priority lakes in Glacier National Park to document presence of common loons and observations of breeding and nesting behaviors.

High Country - Citizen scientists participate in back-country surveys to collect data on the number and distribution of two species of concern in the high country of Glacier National Park: mountain goats and pikas.

Invasive Plants - Hikers document the presence or absence of five noxious weeds along 700+ miles of Glacier's hiking trails to determine the distribution and extent of invasive plants invading the park.

For more information on these programs, please click here.





Jeff
Glacier National Park Hiking

Public Invited to Noxious Weed Blitz in Glacier

Glacier National Park's Citizen Science Program announces two opportunities to help with early detection of invasive plants along park trails: Noxious Weed Blitz on July 17 and an on-line training course for the Invasive Plant Citizen Science program. Both opportunities are free of charge and open to the public.

The third annual Noxious Weed Blitz will take place on Tuesday, July 17 from 10:00am to 4:00pm, meeting at the park's Community Building in West Glacier. Participants will be trained to assist the Invasive Plant Management Program by learning to identify, map, and pull invasive plants. A free lunch will be provided by the Glacier National Park Fund. Be prepared to spend the afternoon in the outdoors, pulling invasive plants. Please bring gloves for hand pulling, footwear for hiking, and drinking water.

Additionally, a new on-line training opportunity teaches participants how to identify five targeted invasive plants, conduct surveys, and map locations of invasive plants using GPS units. Once training has been completed, visitors may check-out GPS units from the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center to detect invasive plants while in the park. The on-line training program can be accessed here.

The Invasive Plant Management Program at Glacier manages non-native invasive plants that displace native flora, interrupt ecological processes, or degrade natural scenery. Most infestations of invasive plants in the park are closely correlated to disturbed areas such as roadsides, recreational areas, and construction sites. However, the 700 miles of backcountry trails also provide a corridor for invasive plants to spread and monitoring is often difficult.

In 2008, the Invasive Plant Management Program and Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center established a citizen science program to enlist the help of the public to map the spread of invasive species in the backcountry. The Citizen Science Program is supported by the Glacier National Park Fund, fostering stewardship while providing critical baseline information on Common Loons, mountain goats, pikas, and invasive plants. For more information about the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center click here.

Attending the Noxious Weed Blitz or completing on-line training enables participants to continue monitoring invasive plants during future hikes in the backcountry. To sign-up for the Noxious Weed Blitz or learn more about the event please contact the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at 406-888-7986 or send an email.


Jeff
Hiking in Glacier.com

GNP Hosts First Brown-Bag Lecture of the Year

The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Glacier National Park is hosting a brown-bag lecture on Wednesday, May 2, from 12- 1 p.m. at the Community Building in West Glacier. The public is invited to join Dr. Cristina Eisenberg present her recently completed doctoral dissertation, The Complex Food Web of Fire, Aspen, Elk, and Wolves in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Dr. Eisenberg is a recent Ph.D. graduate from Oregon State University and her research has focused on the impacts of predator presence on prey behavior and how the food chain interacts with fire to shape vegetation communities in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

She has a post-doctoral appointment at Oregon State University, where she will continue her work on fire, aspen, elk, and wolves in the park. For her master's degree in environmental studies at Prescott College, she studied wolf ecology and management, with a focus on the work of Aldo Leopold.

Her first book, The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades and Biodiversity, was published in 2010. She is working on her second book, about the ecology and public policy underlying large carnivore conservation in the West.

Dr. Eisenberg is the research director on the High Lonesome Ranch in north-central Colorado, where her research interests involve living sustainably with large carnivores and utilizing food web concepts to restore ecosystems.

This brown-bag lecture and other lectures throughout the year are hosted by Glacier National Park's Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center. For more information about the center, please call 406-888-7863 or click here.



Jeff
Hiking in Glacier.com

Park Invites Public to Brown-Bag Lecture

The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center at Glacier National Park is hosting a free brown-bag lecture on Tuesday, November 8 from 12- 1pm at the Community Building in West Glacier. The public is invited to join the Bigfork High School Cave Club for a presentation about their five years of cave research in the park.

The Bigfork High School Cave Club was created in 2005 to provide high school students with opportunities to participate in recreational activities through cave exploration and work with local land managing agencies, such as the National Park Service and the US Forest Service, to restore and conserve fragile cave resources.

In 2010, the club was awarded the President's Environmental Youth Award for their work in the conservation of caves in Glacier National Park. They were invited to present at the opening ceremony of the International GIS Users Conference in San Diego, California.

Recently, the club completed monitoring for 11 caves in Grand Canyon National Park and in October, club members presented at the National Cave Management Symposium in Utah.

For more information about the presentation, or the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center, please visit www.nps.gov/glac/naturescience/ccrlc or contact 406-888-5827.


Jeff
Hiking in Glacier.com