UW-Grand Teton National Park History Topic of Talk at UW-NPS Research Station July 27

Collaborations between the University of Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park are the topic of the next Harlow Summer Seminar Thursday, July 27, at the UW-National Park Service (NPS) Research Station. The former directors of the facility -- located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park -- will present the program.

Hank Harlow and Harold Bergman, professors emeriti from the UW Department of Zoology and Physiology, will present “A (brief) history of research and partnership between the University of Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park.” The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a barbecue, followed by the 6:30 p.m. seminar. The events are free and open to the public, although a $10 donation is suggested.

Formerly called the AMK Ranch Talk Series, the Harlow Summer Seminar Series is named after 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.

Harlow, who was the research facility’s director for 20 years, will begin the latest seminar with a brief overview of the evolution of science-based management in the National Park Service and the need for external research to address challenges for maintaining the ecological integrity of national parks.

He also will chronicle the history of the UW-NPS Research Station, from the 1945 Jackson Hole Wildlife Park and its role in supporting science in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem through financial, logistic and program support.

Bergman will follow with a review of UW-NPS cooperative agreements, typical events in a year at the UW-NPS Research Station, and a summary of recent major UW investments in the station’s infrastructure and operations.

Michael Dillon, a UW zoology and physiology professor and the station’s current interim director, will then join his two colleagues to continue the discussion and help to answer questions.

Harlow is a former physiological ecologist with research interests on animal adaptations to stressful environments, such as cold temperatures and food scarcity in relation to spatial and energy needs. Animals he has studied include black bears in the Rocky Mountains, badgers on the Wyoming prairie as well as Komodo dragons in Indonesia, polar bears in the Arctic and sun bears in Borneo.

He currently is active in the Tucson, Ariz., community running wildlife cameras for spotted cats, volunteering at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, conducting workshops on wildlife tracking and enjoying mountain biking desert trails.

Bergman, who retired in 2016, is the former J.E. Warren Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment, and the former director of the Haub School and the Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources at UW. He wrote or co-wrote more than 100 research articles and edited four books on diverse topics related to his principal research interests in environmental toxicology, fish physiology and environmental policy.

He has received numerous research and teaching awards, and he has served on a number of national and international advisory and review panels focusing on environmental and natural resource policy.

The UW-NPS Research Station provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from around the world to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area.

A cooperative effort between UW and the NPS for the past 66 years, the research station is located on the AMK Ranch historic district on a peninsula extending into Jackson Lake near Leeks Marina.