Climate change study will use satellite data

Glacier National Park will be part of a broad study to model climate change across the western landscape with the hope of coming up with solutions to ecological problems caused by a warming planet.

Funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the $1.8 million study is headed up by Montana State University ecology professor Andrew Hansen. Hansen and his team will use NASA satellite data and other remote-sensing data to simulate how the ecosystems of two "landscape conservation cooperatives" could be impacted by climate change.

A landscape conservation cooperative is a large swath of land with similar characteristics. The concept, developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, attempts to bring land managers and private landowners to collaborate in an integrated fashion within and across regions, regardless of state and international boundaries.

Hansen's study will look at two LCCs - one covers the Northern Rockies (including Glacier and Yellowstone national parks) and the Columbia Basin, and the other covers the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern U.S.

The study is designed to take four years, but Hansen said in an interview last week that the idea is to complete the climate change modeling by the second year. In successive years, land managers could then develop strategies for dealing with the possible impacts.

Hansen noted that some problems caused by climate change simply can't be mitigated, but some could be. For example, land managers trying to stem large fires that kill subalpine forests could implement smaller prescribed burns. In many cases, smaller fires will prevent larger fires in future dry years by reducing the amount of fuels in the forest.

In the past, Glacier Park managers have used controlled burns and have let some naturally occurring fires burn to help rejuvenate its grassland habitats - particularly in the North Fork.

Previous studies have already shown the Park is becoming a greener and more forested place, as trees and vegetation continue to spread into areas where a few decades ago they didn't exist.

Hansen said current models show a gradual warming trend across the Rockies, but he said he'd also like to include years like this one - where an El Nina ocean current actually caused an abnormally large snowpack and resulted in one of the coldest springs in recorded history.

Years like this could impact the overall model, he noted.

The data from the study can then be used by land managers to make broader scale land management decisions.