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Repeat Glacier Photography: Shephard Glacier, 1913-2005
October 24, 2008

Current Weather Conditions at Glacier National Park Headquarters
Temp: 47°F
Sky: Mostly Cloudy
Wind: Calm

This week's repeat photograph takes us into the remote northeastern region of Glacier National Park, to Shephard Glacier. Most easily accessed via Goat Haunt, it is possible to view this glacier from the trail leading over Stoney Indian Pass to Glenn's Lake (a hike of approximately 12 miles from the Goat Haunt Ranger Station).

(1913 Photo by W.C. Alden, USGS; 2005 Photo by B. Reardon, USGS
USGS Repeat Glacier Photography Project)

The scattered remnants of Shephard Glacier cling to the shadowy depths of a cirque (a bowl-shaped, amphitheater-like depression eroded into the side of a glacial valley) below Cathedral Peak. Looking closely, you can begin to see some vegetation growing in places that were, less than 100 years ago, covered in ice several hundred feet thick.

This process, known as primary succession, is occurring throughout Glacier National Park wherever glacial recession exposes rocks suitable for pioneer species such as lichens and mosses to colonize. As the rock is broken down more soil is created, enabling larger plants to take root.

This particular hanging valley, once occupied by Shephard Glacier, is located at an elevation too high for tree growth. However, in another hundred years you might expect to see forbes and woody shrubs beginning to colonize the shores of the kettle pond visible in the photo.

As the park's glaciers disappear, scientists are also closely monitoring how the process of succession influences the movement of various species of wildlife. 

But there is another variable to consider, as well. How will our changing climate alter the eons-old process of succession in the Crown of the Continent ecosystem? And what will that mean for the park's wildlife?

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Tracking Global Climate Change
October 20, 2008

Current Weather Conditions at Glacier National Park Headquarters
Temp: 39°F
Sky: Light Rain
Wind: Calm

For many of us, keeping up to date on the latest climate change science is a daunting task. There is so much research being done right now that it is often difficult to filter out the new findings from the old data, making any discussion of the issue confusing at best. Finding a single website that provides access to up-to-date information has been practically impossible. Even here at Glacier National Park, where a tremendous amount of research and monitoring is being done to evaluate the effects of global climate change on the park's resources, current findings and observations can be difficult to find, and are generally not easily accessible to the public (a concern I hope to address in the coming months).

For educators, whose job is to disseminate and communicate these concepts to their students or the general public, this undertaking can be frustrating to the point of exhaustion. There are literally thousands of websites out there dedicated to the issue of global climate change. Many of these are legitimate sources of peer-reviewed scientific findings, but a great many more are not. Some are even blatantly misleading and false. Additionally, for people not familiar with the type of scientific jargon often used in scholarly articles, trying to understand what the good science is telling us can be very intimidating.

Unfortunately, the challenge of staying up-to-date on the current status of climate change research can and does prevent teachers, agency interpreters, and the general public from focusing more on this critical issue in their classrooms, during ranger programs at national parks, and in our everyday conversations. No one wants to appear uninformed, or worse, misinformed.

However, for now it looks like this task just got easier. Scientists at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have developed a website called "Global Climate Change: NASA's Eyes on the Earth". Its heavy reliance on provocative images, graphs and assorted media (podcasts, videos, interactive maps) make it an attractive and engaging site to explore. The techno-jargon has been reduced to a minimum without sacrificing the integrity of the science itself, and the easy-to-use interface make the detailed information accessible and understandable.

The best thing about the entire website is the ease with which you can receive up to the minute information about our changing planet. You can subscribe to the RSS feed and receive email notifications when the site is updated, or stay connected via your cell phone through twitter. For you technophiles out there, you can also download your very own “Vital Signs” widget for both Mac and PC, allowing you to keep track of the latest climate change data in real-time on your computer.

There’s even a page to discuss possible solutions to the crisis, both at a national and global policy scale as well as what we all can do individually with a link to the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Personal Emissions Calculator”, which enables you to estimate your family’s greenhouse gas emissions and provides advice on how to reduce your carbon footprint.

Finally, I’d also like to introduce the National Park Service Climate Friendly Parks program. You’ll notice that Glacier National Park is a proud member of this prestigious group of NPS sites that have committed to making changes to how we do business in an effort to combat global climate change. You can even find tools and suggestions on how you can do your part to protect our national parks from the effects of global warming.

I strongly recommend that you visit these websites and share them with your friends and family. The more we all understand the phenomenon of global climate change, its causes and its consequences, the more capable we will all become to actually do something about it.

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Glacier "Repeat Photography" Morph of the Week
October 14, 2008

Current Weather Conditions at Glacier National Park Headquarters
Temp: 53°
Sky: Overcast
Wind: Light

This post is going to be rather brief, but since I missed last week's repeat glacier photo I wanted to get something up here. We're sticking with Grinnell Glacier again, this time as seen from the overlook you can hike to off of the Highline Trail.

If you would like to see more examples of repeat glacier photography illustrating the dramatic effects of global climate change on Glacier National Park, please visit the USGS Repeat Photography Project website.

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Glacier "Repeat Photography" Morph of the Week
October 03, 2008

Current Weather Conditions at Glacier National Park Headquarters
Temp: 61°
Sky: Overcast
Wind: Calm

One way to keep myself actively posting on this blog is to try to commit to some sort of weekly feature. Considering all of the positive feedback I received regarding the repeat glacier photography animation I posted last month, I thought it might be interesting to try to introduce a new glacier morph each week. Considering that the USGS currently has 26 repeat photographs from Glacier National Park (each corresponding to a red dot on the map to the left), it should take me the better part of half a year to finish all of them.

This week's repeat photography morph highlights one of Glacier National Park's most famous (and most studied) glaciers: Grinnell. This morph ended up being a bit more challenging than my last attempt, mostly due to the fact that there were four seperate images to morph rather than two. The seperate images (taken in 1938, 1981, 1998, and 2006) illustrate not only the collective effects of 70 years of climate change, but also shows how dramatically these rivers of ice can change over a relatively short period of time.

Unfortunately, the 1938 image didn't capture the full view of the later photographs. I chose not to crop the more recent images, which is why the edges seem a little peculiar.

The other reason I chose to highlight Grinnell Glacier this week is because I just happened to take a photo of it during a hike last Saturday. This view shows both Grinnell Lake and the glacier from the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, which is accessible from a short, but strenuous, hike about 6.8 miles down the Highline Trail from the trailhead at Logan Pass.

Mt. Gould, the top of which is where the repeat photographs were taken, can be seen in the upper right. You can also see Salamander Glacier just at the bottom of the image.

For anyone planning a trip to Glacier National Park, I highly recommend the Highline Trail. And if you have the energy for the grunt up to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, you will be rewarded with a tremendous view of this spectacular river of ice. At least for a few more years.