The recently renovated UW-National Park Service (UW-NPS) station holds Harlow Summer Seminar in Grand Teton National Park discussing the future of the Teton landscape as well as the effect declining snowpack has on drought and fire risk.
The UW-NPS station hosted an event on August 31 open to the public to discuss future plans of the research station as well as the Teton environment. The event was the first since 2019 to be held at the station as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 event was held at the UW extension facility in downtown Jackson.
The main speaker of the event, Bryan Shuman, gave a presentation on “Imagining the Future of the Tetons” which discussed the impact of declining snowpack and the implications it holds for the Tetons. Bryan Shuman is the current UW-NPS director and is a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Wyoming.
The WY-ACT project has become one of importance at the UW-NPS station. This project is just one small part of a twenty million dollar grant given to UW in order to handle changing water patterns. The grant will provide funding to expand the role UW-NPS has in research. The grant will allow for five new faculty positions at the University.
The event provided information on the Tetons and the effect that climate change is playing on snowpack which in turn correlates with water levels. The visitors to the event were given a tour of the research grounds around Jackson Lake.
The research station has been undergoing renovations since before the pandemic. Efforts were made to improve structural stability as well as provide updates to existing buildings. Waterfront building projects will be done next at the UW-NPS as it continues to evolve to provide an area to conduct vital research.
