NPS Photo

Figure 1. Following a yearlong study module on climate change, San Diego high school students survey for mountain goats near Hidden Lake in Glacier National Park.

In times of shrinking glaciers and funding opportunities, Glacier National Park (Montana) has had to seek creative new partnerships to meet management conservation goals. The park has developed a citizen science program both as a cost-effective means of gathering baseline data and as an outreach tool to educate visitors and foster resource appreciation and stewardship.

In 2005 the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center (CCRLC), in collaboration with park resource managers, set out to determine whether some of Glacier National Park’s numerous backcountry visitors would be willing to participate in a short training that would allow them to accurately collect data on common loons while hiking in the park. The answer was a resounding yes. The success of volunteer monitoring of loons led the park to formalize its citizen science efforts in 2008 by establishing the High Country Citizen Science Program for inventory of climate-sensitive species.