Moody captures Glacier's plight in new film

A couple of years ago Sarah Moody was at a talk by Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow on climate change. Moody already worked in the Park’s backcountry permit office and was an environmental studies student at the University of Montana. Climate change was a subject of passion.

So she asked Mow how she might be able to help the Park spread the word.

Mow said they were really trying to make a video that explained the impacts to the Park.

“I had no video experience,” Moody said.

But she jumped at the chance to do the project anyway. She took a course in video production at the university and then began making the film along with help from photographer Stephanie Oster.

Moody received the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center’s Jerry O’Neal National Park Service Student Fellowship which helped finance the project.

The film marked a turning point in her young career. Moody had been writing stories about climate change and like many in the field, at times would become depressed. The sheer magnitude of the problem has been known to mentally effect even the most stout scientists.

“It’s a tough field to be in,” she said. The film gave her something tangible, a product with an emotional connection.

“I needed something I could put my energy into,” she said.

The impacts of climate change at Glacier National Park are becoming increasingly evident. Around 1850, an estimated 150 glaciers existed within the present boundaries of the park. Today, only 25 glaciers remain and are predicted to disappear by 2030, if not earlier. Glaciers provide many of the Park’s streams and lakes with freshwater throughout the summer. Without them, the Park faces an uncertain future.

Moody and Oster hiked miles of Glacier’s trails to create the film, including treks to Grinnell and Sperry glaciers, shooting the video with Canon DSLR cameras.

From start to finish it took about a year to produce and edit, she said.

Moody said she plans on making more films in the future.

She wants to do a documentary on little houses. She plans on building one herself.

Moody’s film can be viewed at Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center’s website at http://www.crownscience.org/Changing_Landscape or on Glacier National Park’s website at http://go.nps.gov/1kqbrc.