Glacier Park ecologist awarded

One of Tara Carolin’s early projects in Glacier National Park was working on whitebark pine restoration. That was back in 2001, when Carolin was the Park ecologist.

The idea was to plant new forests in the Park from seeds gathered from trees in the Park found to be resistant to blister rust — a fungus that decimated most of the Park’s once vibrant whitebark population.

The seeds were propagated into seedlings and planted in the high country. Today, those seedlings have grown chest high in some areas and seem to be doing well.

“The most satisfying project has been the whitebark restoration project,” she said about her work.

Carolin’s interest in natural science began when as a college freshman she signed up for a program that included grand tours of several Western national parks, including a rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon.

After completing undergraduate studies in wildlife and range resources, she received a master’s in zoology from Brigham Young University. Her 22-year Park Service career began as a biologist at Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah. She came to Glacier Park in 1996 to work as the Park ecologist.

In 2009, Carolin was named the director of Glacier Park’s Crown of the Continent Research Center and oversaw the Park’s research permitting as well as the center’s work, which includes the Park’s citizen science programs.

For her efforts, Carolin recently received the 2013 National Park Service Intermountain Region Director’s Award for Professional Excellence in Natural Resource Research. 

The idea behind citizen science is to train nonprofessionals to do research in the field. The Park’s citizen science program started in 2005 with volunteers counting and monitoring the common loon population. Over the years, it has expanded to include high country monitoring of mountain goats, bighorn sheep, pikas, weeds and aquatic insects.

The Crown of the Continent Research Center handles communication and outreach with Park staff and the public, including free lunchtime “Brown Bag” talks by various speakers. The talks initially drew 12-15 people. Today they draw 50 to 75. The center’s goal is to make science accessible not just to Park staff but to the public, she said.

Carolin said the award isn’t really about her — it recognizes the entire staff at the center, including Melissa Sladek, Jami Belt, Terry Peterson and a host of summer interns over the years.

The citizen science program, which Belt directly manages, has trained more than 950 volunteers since it began, not including high school students from the Flathead and as far away as Chicago. In a typical summer, more than 130 volunteers work in the program.

Glacier Park plans to expand its citizen science efforts next year to include counting golden eagles as they migrate through the Park. Golden eagle populations in the West and the Park are reportedly on the decline.

The center also supports research at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site and Waterton Lakes National Park.