Thanks to a changing climate, not only may Glacier National Park need a new name, but eventually a new mascot. The park’s iconic mountain goats are already feeling the impacts of climate change, said Dan Fagre, a research ecologist for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Glacier National Park.
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http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/climate_change_impacts_more_than_glaciers_glaciers/C38/L38/
This latest work “not only shows that climate change is a real problem. It also shows it has direct implications for humans – and not just in the third world,” says Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif. The institute focuses on links between sustainable development and global security issues. “Even without climate change, we’re taking too much water from the Colorado. So it’s no surprise that if we continue to take too much, the reservoirs will go dry.”
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Here’s an excerpt:
“Climate change could have a serious impact on Glacier
National Park. The park has approximately 50 glaciers
today, down from an estimated 150 glaciers in 1850. The
recession of Sperry Glacier illustrates the impact of recent
warming temperatures in the park. If these warming trends
continue, it is estimated that no glaciers will be found in the
park by 2030. Without glaciers, stream temperatures are
expected to rise, which could affect aquatic ecosystems in
the park, including trout species. Climate change also could
affect the types of trees found in the forests. Lodgepole pine
and western cedar forests could yield to forests dominated
by spruce and western hemlock. Six rare alpine plants that
are at the southern border of their geographic range would
be especially vulnerable to climate change.”
Read the entire report here:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/UniqueKeyLookup/SHSU5BUTHT/$File/mt_impct.pdf
