Science of the past and future — Flathead Lake Biological Station studies the Crown of the Continent
Associate director Tom Bansak stands along Yellow Bay at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Research assistant Marcy Mead holds a jar of mysis shrimp specimens in the Invertebrate Lab at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Algae samples are cultivated inside one of the laboratories at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Chief Michelle, of the Pend d'Oreille on the Flathead Reservation, at the Flathead Lake Biological Station around 1906. (Photo courtesy of Northwest Montana History Muesum)
A group of people stand at the University of Montana Biological Station, on Flathead Lake, about 1906. Chief Michelle, of the Pend d'Oreille on the Flathead Reservation, is second from the right. Morton J. Elrod, the biological station's founder, took the photo. (Photo courtesy of the Northwest Montana History Museum)
Flathead Lake Biological Station director Jim Elser with research students on Flathead Lake. (Photo courtesy of the Flathead Lake Biological Station)
Researchers at the Flathead Lake Biological Station complete studies on a boat. (Photo courtesy of the Flathead Lake Biological Station)
Researchers at the Flathead Biological Station do a study on a boat in Glacier National Park. (Photo courtesy of the Flathead Lake Biological Center)
The "Jessie B," named after Jessie Biermann, patroness of the Flathead Lake Biological Station. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Research lab manager Adam Baumann works inside one of the laboratories at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
A view inside one of the residential cabins at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Rows of residential cabins at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
An R.B. Cycle Graphic 4x5 camera made by Eastman Kodak and used by Dr. Morton J. Elrod, an American ecologist, professor at University of Montana and founder of Flathead Lake Biological Station. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
A tree ring from a ponderosa pine estimated at around 350 years old that fell during a wind storm in 2005 at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Associate director Tom Bansak at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Associate director Tom Bansak stands along Yellow Bay at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Fog hangs over the Mission Mountains above Yellow Bay at Flathead Lake Biological Station on Wednesday, Jan. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Morton J. Elrod founded the Flathead Lake Biological Station. (Photo courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library University of Montana)
On a winter morning in January, the Flathead Lake Biological Station sits still beneath a layer of fog as the clear, cold water in Yellow Bay shifts beneath quiet winds. While the station, created to monitor the waters of Flathead Lake and its watershed, is less crowded in the winter, research projects and scientific minds still occupy the halls of the campus.
Research assistant Marcy Mead sits in one of the station's many labrooms on the property, evaluating dozens of samples of algae and phytoplankton from Flathead Lake under a microscope. Next to her sits a jar of mysis shrimp — an invasive species that has offset the ecological course of Flathead waters, each a small, almost translucent, crustacean with black beady eyes.
Through her microscope, she surveys what makes the Flathead watershed special, something the station has been doing for over a century.
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