From lynx studies to social media, park partner eyes 2020 projects
Photographer Cory DeStein searched for two days in the snow in February of 2019 hoping to capture the pictured male lynx after being tipped off of its location from a friend. Snapping this picture was a bucket list item for him. (Photo courtesy of Cory DeStein)
It has been two decades since the Glacier National Park Fund was founded, and as the nonprofit fundraising arm for the park — now known as the Glacier National Park Conservancy — heads into a new year, a record-breaking 75 grant projects will be supported by donor dollars in 2020.
The Glacier Fund merged with the Glacier Association in 2013 to create the Conservancy, but the nonprofit’s mission remains the same as it was 20 years ago: “support the preservation and protection of the natural beauty and cultural heritage of Glacier National Park, through private philanthropy for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.”
In 2020, the Conservancy’s fund will give $2.5 million in private support to park projects that range from trail restoration and field trips, to citizen science projects and community engagement with tribal partners.
The plans are ambitious and can be found in every corner of Glacier National Park.
The upcoming grant projects, as well as others pursued in past years, are divided into three categories: preservation, education and scientific research.
About $1.2 million of the $2.5 million raised will go to 37 preservation projects, about $865,000 will funneled into 25 education-based projects and about $500,000 will be dedicated to 13 scientific research undertakings. By comparison, in 2018 an estimated $2.3 million was dedicated to park projects for the same categories.
The Conservancy recently released information about its upcoming plans, providing a more in-depth evaluation of some of 2020’s signature projects that “distinguish the public-private partnership between the nonprofit and the park as among the most dynamic, productive and impactful of its kind.”
One of those projects is the ongoing promotion and development of the citizen science program — an initiative that since 2005 has allowed volunteers to explore the park while collecting data for park managers. Last year, 247 citizen scientists contributed 7,530 hours to surveying priority species of concern in Glacier.
The park’s size makes it difficult for full-time biologists and scientists to collect and compile necessary data on the park. But the citizen scientist program, which falls under the educational category for the fund, helps to address the park’s growing list of research and monitoring needs for bighorn sheep, loons, aquatic insects, fungi and more.
Jami Belt, biologist and citizen science coordinator for the park, stated in the pamphlet that her favorite part of the program is watching the citizen scientists make their own discoveries while performing surveys.
“They develop their own hypotheses about why wildlife are doing what they do,” she said.
The grant will help provide core funding for staff and expand equipment capabilities, among other things.
Another standout project that falls under education tab for 2020 is the planning and implementation of the park’s first social media summit. The event, for which a specified date has not been provided, seeks to expand the conversation with social media users about real-world impacts of online behavior. A description of the event says officials aim to bring together top “social media influencers” that post regularly about the park and have more than 10,000 followers each.
Daniel Lombardi, a visual information specialist with Glacier, stated the event and its guests will “help us find the best way forward in this new era of the digital outdoors.”
Within the fund’s scientific research category, researching Glacier’s lynx population status is paramount. Few studies have been done on the cats in Glacier, considering Montana is near the southern extent of their roaming range, with the majority of them living in Canada and Alaska.
But in recent years, cameras installed in Many Glacier, St. Mary’s, West Glacier and elsewhere have shown lynx making themselves at home in the park. Research teams aim to continue these studies using noninvasive camera trap methods developed in Washington state.
According to the Conservancy, the work is “particularly critical as the Canada lynx is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act” and will likely be “heavily impacted by climate change, especially in Glacier, at the southern limit of their range.”
Lynx research comes with a price tag of about $106,000 for 2020.
Other projects on the scientific research side include one to monitor impacts on elk herds, a water-quality assessment at Lake McDonald and the study of rare plants throughout the park.
One of the larger undertakings includes a nearly $122,000 contribution that will help complete a “critical two-year study” that delves into the dietary habits of grizzly bears. A large portion of the study looks into how a large portion of the animals’ diet comes from consuming cutworm moths.
Of all three categories of projects, those centered around preservation of the park account for the lion’s share of the Conservancy’s Glacier Fund 2020 offerings.
Some of these include three projects aimed at maintaining Glacier’s backcountry, including one that will fund a two-person crew to survey, map and treat noxious weeds in Glacier’s backcountry wilderness.
The other two are backcountry projects to address challenges that have emerged from increased annual visitation to the park. One grant in the amount of $68,500 will go specifically to fund additional staff, counters, cameras and an agreement with the University of Montana to capture and analyze visitor data. Another $62,000 earmark will add two full-time lead backcountry rangers.
A $70,000 preservation investment will help in the fight to keep invasive mussels out of the park.
Glacier and the greater Flathead Valley have been lucky so far in avoiding an infestation — a catastrophe that can be brought about by the introduction of just one fully mature female zebra mussel which can produce thousands of eggs in a single season, the Conservancy noted. The grant will help ensure every watercraft is carefully inspected prior to entering any water sources in the park.
For a full list of the 75 projects and a list of their locations and to learn which projects need additional funding, go to www.glacier.org
Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com