MOOSE, Wyo. — A special Harlow Speaker Series event is returning Wednesday, Aug. 31, at the renovated University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Station, located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park.
It has been nearly three years since the last Harlow Speaker Series talk in 2019. The Ranch closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a renovation project that has since been completed. In 2021, the talks were held at the UW Extension facility in downtown Jackson.
The upcoming event, “Lunch and Science at the UW-NPS Research Station” is free to the public and will take place from 12-2 p.m. in the Berol Lodge. Featured will be an “Imagining the Future of the Tetons” presentation by UW geology and geophysics Wyoming Excellence Chair Bryan Shuman, the current research station director.
“The effort to envision the future of the Tetons is coming together” through the WY-ACT project, Shuman says. The project is part of a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to UW that allows researchers to work with Wyoming’s communities to deal with expected significant and lasting changes in water availability.
The project’s official name is WY-ACT: Wyoming Anticipating Climate Transitions. It will include establishment of a Laboratory for Regional Earth System Modeling; the launch of a Center for Climate, Water and People; and investment in new capabilities centered at the UW-NPS Research Station. Five new faculty positions initially will be supported by the NSF grant.
The new research initiative at the research station, funded by NSF, will focus on anticipating the future of the Teton landscape and how declining snowpack, increased drought and fire risk, and other changes will affect the ecosystem and the people connected to it, Shuman says.
Participants will have the opportunity, after the presentation, to tour the research station grounds along scenic Jackson Lake.
Renovation at the research station began in 2019 when a new pumphouse and water system were installed. Over the past several summers, the historic log buildings have been the focus of work, including a significant effort to replace and repair many of the large structural logs and beams. Roofs, porches and decks also have been updated throughout the grounds. The next phase of the ongoing project, beginning this fall, will focus on the dock and lakefront areas.
The research station, a cooperative effort between UW and the NPS for the past 65 years, supports research in Grand Teton National Park and surrounding areas. The research station is located on the AMK Ranch historic district on a peninsula extending into Jackson Lake near Leeks’ Marina.
The UW-NPS Research Station provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from throughout North America to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area.
Formerly called the AMK Ranch Talk Series, the Harlow Summer Seminars program is named after retired UW Department of Zoology and Physiology Professor Hank Harlow, who helped make the UW-NPS Research Station a significant center for research and community outreach. Harlow began the popular weekly public seminars during the summer months.
