Gniadek honored for conservation efforts

Retired Glacier National Park biologist Steve Gniadek is still making his mark on the conservation world.

An avid birder, biologist and conservationist, he was recently honored with the Outstanding Conservation Achievement Award by the Flathead Audubon Society for his passion and commitment to conservation issues.

Gniadek grew up in rural central Illinois exploring the woods near his home.

“I didn’t even know what a biologist was,” he said.

But he was inspired by watching National Geographic TV specials of the Craighead brothers, who did groundbreaking bear research in Yellowstone.

After high school he studied at the University of Illinois, but its zoology program was geared toward pre-med students, so he finished up at the University of Michigan with a degree in forestry and wildlife. He went onto the Peace Corps and later got his master’s degree in wildlife biology from the University of Montana. His master’s thesis was on elk.

After working on numerous wildlife projects in the United States and South America, Gniadek was hired in 1987 in Glacier National Park and worked on a number of projects until retiring in 2009.

Highlights of Gniadek’s work included surveys for common loons, harlequin ducks, bald and golden eagles, cliff-nesting raptors, nocturnal owls, northern hawk owls, and songbirds.

His time at Glacier was enjoyable, he said.

While at Glacier, Gniadek supervised trail-side bird inventories and systematically reported observations of bears, mountain goats, and general wildlife through the Glacier’s Wildlife Observation Report system.

While in the Park, he said he took pains to make sure wildlife had a voice in management decisions.

“I was consistently an advocate for the wildlife resource,” he said.

That, he admitted, didn’t always make him popular with his peers. But he noted the Organic Act, which formed the National Park Service, has a mantra to preserve and protect.

“That’s the legal mandate,” he noted. “I always tried to uphold that. It didn’t always get met with approval.”

He recalled one incident where the public was outraged that the Park Service allowed a deer to be killed and eaten out on the ice by a wolverine. It was nature taking its course. While he does enjoy birding, he said he strived to be a well-rounded biologist.

He also initiated and coordinated research on Canada lynx, wolverine, pikas, bighorn sheep, and Brewer’s (timberline) Sparrows, among a host of other projects.

He started two breeding bird survey routes in the Park, plus continuing one in British Columbia, one on the Blackfeet Reservation, and one in the Missouri River Breaks.

He continues to dedicate his time and energy by serving on the editorial board of the Intermountain Journal of Sciences; participating in the Conservation Round Table; leading field trips for Flathead Audubon; helping with numerous bio-blitzes, the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch, and other surveys; and serving on the boards of non-profit organizations such as the Montana Loon Society and the North Fork Preservation Association. He is a former Flathead Audubon board member and past co-chair of Flathead Audubon’s Conservation Committee.

The key to conservation is simple, he noted.

“It comes down to habitat,” he said. “You’ve got to have good habitat.”

He noted that’s why there’s such a richness of species across the Montana landscape. Over the years, the public has taken pains to protect habitat, whether through purchase or through easements.

“It’s not predation,” he said. “You can’t pave over a wetland and expect to have ducks out there.”