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

Posted on July 27, 2023January 9, 2024 by UW-NPS

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.

Speakers: Hank Harlow and Harold Bergman, Professors Emeritus, Department of Zoology and Physiology,and Former Directors, UW-NPS Research Station at AMK Ranch, University of Wyoming

Time: Thursday, July 27th, 5:30pm MT, talk begins at 6:30pm MT

Location: UW-NPS Research Station at the AMK Ranch, in the Berol Lodge

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.

Harold Bergman, photo provided by Harold Bergman

Hank Harlow, photo provided by Hank Harlow

Left to Right: Harold Bergman, Michael Dillon, Hank Harlow, photo provided by Harold Bergman

Fishing on the dock at AMK ranch, photo provided by Hank Harlow

AMK Ranch, photo provided by Harold Bergman

Harlow Seminar – July 20th, 2023, Wyoming Festival

Posted on July 17, 2023January 9, 2024 by UW-NPS

Harlow Special Seminar – July 19th and 20th, 2023

The Wyoming Festival—New Music in the Mountains, Chamber Music inspired by the Tetons

Time: Thursday, July 20th, 5:30pm MT, talk begins at 6:30pm MT

Location: UW-NPS Research Station at the AMK Ranch, in the Berol Lodge

Program: The Wyoming Festival 2023 program

A preview concert will also be presented on Wednesday, July 13. See below for details.

The Wyoming Festival is a 5-day new chamber music festival devoted to the creation of brand, new concert music inspired and informed by the wild and natural setting of Grand Teton National Park. The Festival is held at the AMK Ranch on the University of Wyoming’s National Park Service Research Station (uwnps.org) in Grand Teton National Park.

Wyoming Festival chamber artists-in-residence—world renown musicians, all of whom also play in the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra—are lead by violinist Holly Mulcahy and include Barbara Scowcroft, violin; Kayla William, viola; Steve Laven, cello; and Juan de Gomar, bassoon.

Through a competitive process, four music composition fellows (Shawna Wolf, DelShawn Taylor, Monica Mendoza, and Henrique Rabelo) have been invited to participate along with festival director and composer, Anne M. Guzzo (anneguzzo.com). Their music will be performed at the Teton County Library (*125 Virginian Lane, Jackson) in a free preview concert at 2:30pm on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 in the Ordway Auditorium B, and in concert at the Berol Lodge at the AMK Ranch July 20, 2023—5:30 BBQ and 6:30 concert. Join us as we creatively celebrate Grand Teton National Park.

Sponsors include mickey babcock—supporting the work of women composers; Lynn John, composer; and the UW-NPS Research Station.

Wyoming Festival director, Anne M. Guzzo is Wyoming–based composer who draws on science and nature, playful absurdism, and interdisciplinary collaboration to create music that has been described as alternately moving and humorous. Anne has recently collaborated with an entomologist, a range-land ecologist, vertical dancers, poets, and a microbiologist, among others.

Guzzo—an Emmy-nominated and internationally performed composer—is passionate about new music. She founded and directs the Wyoming Festival: New Music in the Mountains, a chamber music festival in Grand Teton National Park. Anne has been a fellow in residence with Ucross, Wyoming, the Whitely Center at Friday Harbor Labs, and the Brushcreek Residency in Saratoga, WY.

Her music has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today, on the Grand Teton Music Festival Inside the Music Series, the Bowling Green New Music Festival, and performed and recorded by the AdZel Duo, Wyoming Symphony, Voices of Change, the Colorado Chamber Orchestra, Allégresse trio, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Divan Consort, Third Angle, and several other ensembles and performers. Her chamber opera, Locust, was premiered at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming in the Fall of 2018, received its African premiere in Morocco in 2019, and was performed during the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland. For more information, go to anneguzzo.com.

After hearing Scheherazade at an early age, Wyoming Festival Music Director, Holly Mulcahy fell in love with the violin and knew it would be her future. Since then, she has won multiple positions in symphonic orchestras from Richmond to Phoenix and is currently serving as concertmaster of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and Chattanooga Symphony & Opera.

As an in-demand performer, Holly balances her orchestral duties with numerous concerto performances around the country. Passionate about performing living American composers’ works, Holly has been featured as soloist for concertos by Jennifer Higdon, Jim Stephenson, Philip Glass, and now a concerto being written for her by Hollywood film composer, George S. Clinton. This new concerto, The Rose of Sonora: a violin concerto in five scenes, is inspired by true stories about the lives of legendary women in the Old West and will take the listener on an epic western adventure of love and revenge.

Believing in music as a healing and coping source, Holly founded Arts Capacity, a charitable 501(c)3 which focuses on bringing live chamber music, art, artists, and composers to prisons. Arts Capacity addresses many emotional and character-building issues people face as they prepare for release into society.

Visit HollyMulcahy.com for more information.

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

Posted on July 10, 2023January 9, 2024 by UW-NPS

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

The remarkable recovery of the Yellowstone grizzly bear: biology, science, and management

Speaker: Frank T. van Manen, USGS

Time: Thursday, July 13th, 5:30pm MT, talk begins at 6:30pm MT

Location: UW-NPS Research Station at the AMK Ranch, in the Berol Lodge

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

Posted on July 6, 2023January 9, 2024 by UW-NPS

Harlow Seminar – July 6th, 2023, Grant Hopcraft

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

Speaker: Dr. Grant Hopcraft, University of Glasgow

Time: Thursday, July 6th, 5:30pm MT, talk begins at 6:30pm MT

Location: UW-NPS Research Station at the AMK Ranch, in the Berol Lodge

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.

Harlow Summer Seminar – June 29th, 2023, Merav Ben-David

Posted on June 27, 2023January 9, 2024 by UW-NPS

Harlow Summer Seminar – June 29th, 2023, Merav Ben-David

Is protecting isolated species enough? On the role of Yellowstone National Park in the recovery of river otters in the Rocky Mountains

Speaker: Merav Ben-David, Professor, Dept. of Zoology & Physiology, UW

Time: Thursday, June 29th, 5:30pm, talk begins at 6:30pm

Location: UW-NPS Research Station at the AMK Ranch, in the Berol Lodge

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/)

By the early 1900’s, river otters (Lontra canadensis) were extirpated from most freshwater systems in western North America due to overharvest and pollution. Remnant populations survived in the greater Yellowstone region, largely due to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872. Despite improvement to water quality following the Clean Water Act of 1972 and limits on harvest since the mid-1950s, river otter populations showed limited recovery in the Rocky Mountain region. Reintroduction efforts in several states (Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, and South Dakota), led to the successful establishment of river otter populations. Nonetheless, otter recovery in many Wyoming watersheds has not yet occurred. In this project we conducted a formal survey of otters across the state using camera traps and non-invasive genetic sampling. Our preliminary results show that the Yellowstone population was the source of at least two independent expansion events; one into the Shoshone River and another to the Snake. From there otters colonized the Upper Wind River. We also found that river otters in the Green River are genetically distinct, and that population may be an expansion of the reintroduced animals in Utah. Similarly, otters from Colorado seem to expand into the headwaters of the Platte River. The ability of overland dispersal by otters contrast with their limited spread into the Big Horn and lower Platte Rivers. In future work we intend to model the dynamics of otter expansion and the role of barriers (e.g., dams and large reservoirs) and water flow in an effort to better understand the current distribution of otters in Wyoming.

Harlow Seminar – July 6th, 2023, Annika Walters

Posted on June 22, 2023January 9, 2024 by UW-NPS

Harlow Seminar – July 6th, 2023

Cutthroat trout conservation: challenges and opportunities

Speaker: Annika Walters, USGS and the University of Wyoming

Time: Thursday, June 22nd, 5:30pm MT, talk begins at 6:30pm MT

Location: UW-NPS Research Station at the AMK Ranch, in the Berol Lodge

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/)

Cutthroat trout play key ecological and economic roles in Wyoming. Cutthroat provide food resources for aquatic, terrestrial, and avian predators and support a world-renowned recreational fishery. In many areas, cutthroat trout populations have been declining due to habitat degradation and hybridization with rainbow trout. Climate change may further threaten cutthroat trout persistence. I explore some of the challenges and opportunities in cutthroat trout conservation through examples from research conducted in the North Fork Shoshone and Upper Snake watersheds. Cutthroat trout conservation will benefit from emerging tools and partnerships, in addition to the species’ innate ability to adapt and persist.

Recording Now Available! Dr. Tarissa Spoonhunter: Tribes, Treaties and National Parks

Posted on September 16, 2022January 9, 2024 by UW-NPS

Tribes, Treaties and National Parks
Harlow Speaker Series Special Event with Lunch
Speaker: Dr. Tarissa Spoonhunter, University of Wyoming Haub School
Time: Wednesday, Sept 21st, noon-2 pm. Talk beginning at 12:45 pm
Location: UW-NPS Berol Lodge, and on Zoom (the link and password will be available through our email list. If you haven’t already, be sure to join our emailing list!)
Lunch available to the first 40 participants

Tarissa Spoonhunter, the new director of the High Plains American Indian Research Institute at the University of Wyoming, is the featured speaker for the Harlow Speaker Series event Wednesday, Sept. 21, at the renovated University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Station. The facility is located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park.

The free event is from noon-2 p.m. in the Berol Lodge. Spoonhunter will present “Tribes, Treaties and National Parks” beginning at 12:45 p.m. She will speak about her research on the long-term relationships that Native American tribes have with national park lands, and how treaties and other policies have shaped those relationships since the lands were designated as parks by the U.S. government.

Spoonhunter, also an assistant professor in the UW Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, focuses her work on sharing knowledge with other races and nationalities to build relationships to increase understanding — something that resides deep in her roots growing up on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. At age nine, her people gave her the name Medicine Beaver Woman, a name she remembers feeling came with a great deal of responsibility and underscores the dedication she brings to her work at UW.

A light lunch will be provided for the first 40 attendees. The talk also will be available via Zoom.

The event will mark the beginning of a National Science Foundation-funded workshop at the AMK involving over 20 UW faculty, that is related to the new WyACT: Wyoming Anticipating Climate Transitions project aimed at anticipating future climate and water changes. The event presents an opportunity for visitors to meet and talk with UW researchers covering a wide range of areas from ecology and hydrology to park-related social science.

The UW-NPS Research Station provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from throughout North America to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area. Formerly called the AMK Ranch Talk Series, the Harlow Summer Seminars program is named after retired UW Department of Zoology and Physiology Professor Hank Harlow, who helped make the UW-NPS Research Station a significant center for research and community outreach. Harlow began the popular weekly public seminars during the summer months.

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