Harlow Seminar – August 3rd, 2023, Ana Houseal

The talk will also be available via Zoom (The zoom link will be made available through our email list. If you are not on the list, please click here to join: https://uwnps.org/mailing-list/)

Abstract

From the Golden Gate National Parks, Grand Tetons, and the Great Smokies to Monticello, Civil War battlefields, and Japanese internment camps, students of all ages are learning first-hand, in motivating and authentic ways, about climate change, U. S. history, biodiversity, and cultural diversity. Virtual field trips to the Grand Canyon, Alaska’s Katmai National Park, and more than 40 NPS units became even more popular during the Covid crisis. These immersive, place-based experiences also lead learners to reconsider their own goals and abilities. Since educating the whole person should include experiential learning in local communities, states, and regions, our National Park System sites represent our nation’s most significant landscapes, ecosystems, and historical/cultural sites. This talk will explore ideas about life-long learning within our National Park System and share case studies and research findings from a book released at the beginning of the pandemic, America’s Largest Classroom: What We Learn from Our National Parks (U. California Press, 2020). As exemplified in this volume, these places extend beyond the well-known parks, thus “America’s Best Idea” needs our continued vision about what it helps us all know and begin to understand about our country and ourselves.

Bio

Ana Houseal, PhD, is a Professor and Science Outreach Educator for the Science and Mathematics Teaching Center at the University of Wyoming. Her work focuses on science education in formal (public schools) and non-formal (National Parks) settings. Dr. Houseal and her team have been facilitating responsive K-12 science teacher professional development all over Wyoming since 2012, regarding the implementation of the new science standards using place-based phenomena and instructional storylines. Dr. Houseal’s research and scholarship sits at the intersection of science, place, science standards and shifts in instruction. Further, she explores how connections to our public lands can satisfy many of these objectives. In this way, she supports crossovers between formal and non-formal spaces in ways that benefit both.

Speaker Contact Info

Ana Houseal, ahouseal@uwyo.edu

Harlow Seminar – July 27th, 2023, Hank Harlow and Harold Bergman

A (brief) history of research and partnership between the University of Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park.

The talk will also be available via Zoom (The zoom link will be made available through our email list. If you are not on the list, please click here to join: https://uwnps.org/mailing-list/)

Abstract:

Hank Harlow will start the seminar with a short account of the evolution of science-based management in the National Park Service and the need for external research to address challenges for maintaining the ecological integrity of our Parks. He will chronicle the history of the UW-NPS from the 1945 Jackson Hole Wildlife Park and its role in supporting science in the GYE through financial, logistic and program support. Harold Bergman will follow with a review of UW-NPS Cooperative Agreements, typical events in a year at the Research Station, and a summary of major recent UW investments in the Station’s infrastructure and operations. Station Interim Director Michael Dillon will then join Hank and Harold to continue the discussion and help answer audience questions.

Biographies:

Hank Harlow is a physiological ecologist with research interests on animal adaptations to stressful environments such as cold temperatures and food scarcity in relation to spatial and energy needs. Animals studied include black bears in the Rocky Mountains, badgers on the Wyoming prairie as well as Komodo dragons in Indonesia, polar bears in the Arctic and Sun bears in Borneo. Hank was Director of the UW-NPS Research Station for 20 years spending summers at the AMK Ranch with his wife and two boys enjoying Sargent’s peninsula as their back yard. Now, as professor emeritus, he is active in the Tucson AZ community running wildlife cameras for spotted cats, volunteering at the Sonoran Desert Museum, conducting workshops on wildlife tracking and mountain biking desert trails.

Harold Bergman retired in 2016 from his positions as Professor of Zoology and Physiology, J.E. Warren Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment, Director of the UW-National Park Service Research Station, and former Director of the Haub School and the Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming. Bergman earned a PhD in Fisheries Biology at Michigan State University in 1973 and has been on the UW faculty since 1975. He has authored or co-authored over 100 research articles and edited four books on diverse topics related to his principal research interests in environmental toxicology, fish physiology, and environmental policy. He has received numerous research and teaching awards, and he has served on a number of national and international advisory and review panels dealing with environmental and natural resource policy. 

Harlow Seminar – July 13th, 2023, Frank van Manen

The talk will also be available via Zoom (The zoom link will be made available through our email list. If you are not on the list, please click here to join: https://uwnps.org/mailing-list/)

Abstract

Few animals symbolize the wild landscapes of the American West more than the grizzly bear. The fate of grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region was similar to that of large predator species worldwide, with indiscriminate killing in the 1800s and into the mid-1900s, resulting in severe population declines and range contraction. The path to recovery of the Yellowstone grizzly bear population started 50 years ago at the controversial intersection of science, policy, and public opinion. Concerted and visionary conservation efforts reversed the declining population trends of the late 1970s. Based on long-term data collected by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST), we explore the history, current status, and future of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The scientific data provide important insights into factors that contributed to the recovery, the resilience of this iconic animal, and the challenges that come with conservation success.

Bio

Frank T. van Manen is a Supervisory Research Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman, Montana and Team Leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST), a science consortium of federal, state, and tribal agencies established in 1973 to address research and monitoring needs regarding the Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear population. Frank earned a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Tennessee in 1994, researched black bears, red wolves, and Florida panthers in the southeastern U.S. during the 1990s and 2000s, and joined the IGBST in 2012. Frank has collaborated on bear research projects in Ecuador (Andean bears), Sri Lanka (sloth bears), China (giant panda), and Malaysia (sun bears). He was elected President of the International Association for Bear Research and Management from 2007 to 2013 and served on its Executive Council for 15 years.

Harlow Seminar – July 6th, 2023, Grant Hopcraft

The Serengeti wildebeest migration: ecology and conservation in a changing world

The talk will also be available via Zoom (The zoom link will be made available through our email list. If you are not on the list, please click here to join: https://uwnps.org/mailing-list/)

Abstract

The Serengeti is an iconic ecosystem that is best known for the epic migration of over 1.2 million wildebeest plus 250,000 zebra and 200,000 gazelle – however it is unique. Large migrations of animals were once common in many parts of the world, but they have been collapsing globally. What makes the Serengeti so special? Why do we not see Serengeti type ecosystems everywhere? In this public lecture we will explore the underlying natural history that leads to the astounding diversity and abundance of animals in this ecosystem. We will reflect on years of ecological research and management decisions that have provided insights about how ecosystems work and what lessons the Serengeti has taught us.

Bio

Dr. Hopcraft’s research concentrates on conservation ecology and management, particularly of African ecosystems. He leads the Serengeti Biodiversity Program, which includes work with wildebeests, zebras, and elands, and as well as serving as an advisor to many important conservation organizations including Tanzania National Parks, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, and the Frankfurt Zoological Society.