Panel Presentations

How Partnerships and Compelling Stories Can Improve Conservation of Wildlife Corridors and Winter Habitat in the GYE (9/3, 2:00-5:30 pm)

Professor Temple Stoellinger, Associate Professor, Wyoming Excellence Chair, Haub School of Environment & Natural Resources, College of Law, University of Wyoming. Moderator
Dr. Jerod Merkle, Associate Professor, Knobloch Professor of Migration Ecology and Conservation, Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming - Presentation of Newest Science
Overview and Looking Ahead: Dr. Arthur Middleton, Senior Advisor for Wildlife Conservation, USDA Office of the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation, and Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley - Overview/Looking Ahead
Film - Animal Trails: Rediscovering Grand Teton Migrations, introduced by Gregory Nickerson, Writer and Filmmaker, Wyoming Migration Initiative, University of Wyoming

Sharing Compelling Migration Stories to Enhance Stewardship

Successful science communication can improve the information available to land managers for decision making and bring partners together in a common cause. It can also increase public understanding and, therefore, support of policy, regulation, and management actions, as well as engage the public to enhance stewardship. This panel will highlight science communication efforts focused on taking wildlife migration research and translating it into multimedia for a broad audience. Developing multimedia products requires the collaboration of the scientists who did the research working with partners to magnify and spread the message of migration science to boost conservation. Good storytelling and eye-catching graphics have been key to catalyzing efforts, increasing resources, and creating public–private partnerships. The panel will explore both effective communication methods and barriers that still exist in using research to influence management decision making.

Emilene Ostlind, Author and former Communications Coordinator, Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming, Moderator
Chip Jenkins, Superintendent Grand Teton National Park & Chair, Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee
Sara Flitner, President, Flitner Strategies, Inc., and Founder, Becoming Jackson Whole
Michelle Nijhuis, Environmental and Science Journalist, Contributing Editor at High Country News
Gregory Nickerson, Writer and Filmmaker, Wyoming Migration Initiative, University of Wyoming

Wildlife Movement and Migration in the GYE: How Partnerships Can Improve Conservation of Wildlife Corridors and Winter Habitat

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem GYE harbors some of the most diverse and abundant wide-ranging large mammals in North America. This wildlife moves across broad landscapes that span not only national parks, wilderness areas, and multiple-use public lands, but also private and tribal lands where many landowners and managers are interested in partnering to advance land and wildlife conservation. There is a recognized need to improve communication and coordination across jurisdictions, particularly with private and tribal partners, to identify and advance shared conservation goals. Panelists will communicate and elevate the value of wildlife movements and migrations and their dependence on multiple use public, private, and tribal lands across the ecosystem. This panel will share recent progress, identified needs, and emerging opportunities to support conservation of lands with special wildlife value. Panelists will discuss how to translate policy into work on the ground. How do we identify priority areas where multiple jurisdictions could work together, and how do we bring new resources to those areas?

Professor Temple Stoellinger, Associate Professor, Wyoming Excellence Chair, Haub School of Environment & Natural Resources, College of Law, University of Wyoming, Moderator
Lesli Allison, Chief Executive Officer, Western Landowners Alliance
Chet Work, Executive Director, Gallatin Valley Land Trust
Joy Hill, Planning and Zoning Director, Park County, Wyoming
Dr. Arthur Middleton, Senior Advisor for Wildlife Conservation, USDA Office of the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation, and Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley

Growth and Recreation Management in the GYE Panel (9/4, 8:30-9:50 am)

Three Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem federal agency land managers and two community leaders discuss the impacts of increasing growth and changing recreation patterns and implications for the near and long-term future. As some parts of the ecosystem are seeing record visitation and changes within communities, how do we come to a consensus around identifying goals, problems, and co-creating solutions?

Jennifer Carpenter, Chief, Yellowstone Center for Resources, Yellowstone National Park, Moderator
Cam Sholly, Superintendent, Yellowstone National Park
Chip Jenkins, Superintendent, Grand Teton National Park & Chair, Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee
Chad Hudson, Forest Supervisor, Bridger-Teton National Forest
Crista Valentino, Executive Director, Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board
Katrina Wiese, President/CEO, Destination Yellowstone, West Yellowstone, MT

Yellowstone Birds: Ecology and Conservation (9/4, 3:00-5:30PM)

Yellowstone’s birds are far less studied and known than the higher profile large mammals, geologic features, and historical aspects of the world’s first national park. The bird program was only established in the mid-1980s. This short history and neglect are paradoxical because the diversity and abundance of the park’s birds are deserving of attention, research, and conservation and are attractions for park visitors. Yellowstone played a large role in conserving the last known population of trumpeter swans in the United States and was a peregrine falcon reintroduction site. The park provides refuge and protection for many other species both common and of conservation concern. With ever increasing threats and a rapidly heating planet, more bird research, monitoring and conservation are warranted and this symposium is designed to communicate what is known and what needs to be known in order to manage and protect Yellowstone’s birds. For example, several new projects have been initiated in the last fifteen years: understanding trumpeter swan and golden eagle population dynamics, songbird survival and grassland ecology, Clark’s nutcracker dependency on whitebark pine, raven-wolf-human-interactions, and protecting and preserving the most isolated loon population in North America to mention a notable few. Long-term monitoring of bald eagles, osprey and peregrine falcons is also a park focus. The symposium will feature and reveal important bird issues and roughly follows the format of a recently published book Yellowstone’s Birds (Princeton University Press) designed to tell the story of this key group of long neglected animals in the world’s first national park. READ ABSTRACTS AND BIOS HERE.

Introduction – David Haines – Bird Program Lead – YNP
Trumpeter Swans – Douglas Smith – Senior Wildlife Biologist YNP (retired)
Common Loons – Walter Wehtje – Ricketts Conservation Foundation
Clark’s Nutcracker – Diana Tomback – University of Colorado – Denver
Peregrine Falcons and Other Raptors – David Haines – Wildlife Biologist YNP
Songbirds – Katharine Duffy – Supervisory Ranger Naturalist – YNP (retired)
Lead Poisoning – Vince Slabe – Peregrine Fund
Grassland Birds – Victoria Dreitz – University of Montana
Common Ravens – John Marzluff – University of Washington (retired)

Understanding and Managing for Climate Risks (9/4, 3:00-5:30 pm)

Climate change is increasingly impacting resources in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—extreme floods, increased temperature, longer growing season, and drought are shifting wildfire frequency, damaging infrastructure, impacting species like whitebark pine or cold-water-loving cutthroat trout, and increasing the spread of invasive species like cheatgrass. While we have an abundance of climate change research, we are gathering good examples of management for climate impact. Developing climate adaptation actions includes understanding climate risks and resource vulnerability; re-examining our existing goals to see if they are valid under a changing climate; and developing and implementing management actions to minimize the impact of climate change on our natural and cultural resources, infrastructure, and operations. This session explores climate risks and suggests adaptation actions with a focus on two important risks: changing water systems and fire regimes.

Section one: presentations on climate change risks, with a focus on fire and floods

Ann Rodman, Acting Climate Change Coordinator, Yellowstone National Park, Moderator
Dr. Andrew Wilcox, Professor, Department of Geosciences, University of Montana. River-system Responses to the June 2022 Floods in Northern Yellowstone.
Dr. David Thoma, Ecologist, NCPN/Greater Yellowstone Network, National Park Service. Moving from Concern to Proactive Management in a Changing Climate.
Dr. Monica G. Turner, Eugene P. Odum Professor of Ecology and a Vilas Research Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Anticipating Change in Greater Yellowstone in a Warmer World with More Fire.
Sierra Harris, Climate Resiliency Program Manager, Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Assessing Climate Change Priorities and Projects in the GYE.

Section two: panelists discuss how we are adapting to these risks

Ann Rodman, Acting Climate Change Coordinator, Yellowstone National Park, Moderator
John Cataldo, Wildland Fire and Aviation Officer, Yellowstone National Park. Managing fire in a hotter future.
Jill McMurray, Air Quality Specialist, Bridger-Teton National Forest. Greater Yellowstone Fire Action Network – Smoke Ready Communities.
Simeon Caskey, Branch Chief, Physical Science, Grand Teton National Park. Planning for climate-amplified flooding/water change on the Snake River.
Kathy Minor, Deputy Forest Supervisor, Custer Gallatin National Forest. The 2022 floods: Impacts and future adaptation options on the Custer Gallatin National Forest.

GYE Assessment Panel. (9/5, 8:30-10:00 am)

Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee (GYCC) Chair Chip Jenkins (Superintendent, Grand Teton National Park) will share a brief overview of the GYCC’s challenges and successes over the past 60 years. Colter Mumford (Montana State University/National Park Service) will introduce the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) Assessment. A panel discussion will focus on the future of the GYE, the interplay of management and science, and leveraging collaborative partnerships.

Yvette Converse, Chief of Science & Resource Management, Grand Teton National Park, Moderator
Mel Bolling, Forest Supervisor, Caribou-Targhee National Forest
Mary D’Aversa, District Manager, Idaho Falls District, BLM, and GYCC Vice-Chair
Frank van Manen, Supervisory Research Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team
Colter Mumford, Vegetation Ecologist, Montana State University and National Park Service