Presented by Denny Olson
When people see Glacier National Park (GNP) for the first time the scenery — the big, big picture — is beyond obvious. They stand slack-jawed as “nature’s stun gun” overwhelms their senses. The grandeur is all-encompassing. GNP speaks for itself with huge mountains, clear azure lakes, giant snowfields, active glaciers and what they carved – vertical, vertical, vertical. Behind the grandeur are some very fascinating “I’ll bet you didn’t know this about that!” stories. Glacier is one of the rare areas, and maybe the only national park, that has always had all of its original animal species, ones that have been there for thousands of years.
Our recently retired FAS Conservation Educator, Denny Olson, has spent 27 years teaching Road Scholars, Glacier Institute students, and rangers in Glacier. He wrote the entire “Nature & Science” section on the GNP website, and he created a K-12 curricula of 88 activities about Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Denny averages 250 to 300 miles of teaching on the trail every year. These experiences, and a dose of insatiable curiosity, have given him stories to share about bog and fen plants, tailed frogs, fire-adapted species, wolverines, grizzlies, and more. And he won’t short-change us on Glacier’s birds, with stories both oddball and spectacular. Glacier has 26 species of nesting birds in danger of disappearing this century, along with pikas, arctic plants, and endemic stoneflies. Denny will talk about what we can do to help prevent their disappearance.
The meeting will take place Monday, April 14th. Our meetings are available both in person and virtually. For those attending the meeting in person on April 14th, we’ll meet in Room 26 of the Gateway Community Center at 7pm. This room is located on the east side of the building along Glenwood Drive. Look for our banner outside. If you want to join virtually email info@flatheadaudubon.org.