GTNPF Welcomes New Board and Resource Council Members

LOCAL LEADERS AMONG RECENT ADDITIONS TO LEADERSHIP TEAM

AT GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION

Fundraising group for Grand Teton National Park welcomes new Board and

Resource Council Members

Jackson, Wyoming – February 10, 2012 -- Grand Teton National Park Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of new members to its Board of Directors and Resource Council.  Nancy Donovan, Lisa Fleischman, Chris Hartley, Mark Newcomb, and Tom Saylak have joined the Foundation Board, and Andrea Bent and Ron Harrison are the newest members of the Resource Council.  The group brings significant and varied experience to the Foundation as it executes its mission to provide financial support for projects that enhance and protect Grand Teton’s treasured resources.

“We are delighted to welcome such a dynamic group to a leadership team that is arguably one of our strongest yet,” said Foundation President Leslie Mattson.  “Our board and resource council members maintain valuable communication channels between Grand Teton National Park and its local and national constituents, and we look forward to further growth under their guidance and support."

Many of the new members have strong ties to the Jackson community, including involvement with local organizations and businesses ranging from mountain climbing to the hospitality industry. 

Nancy Donovan is chairman of Oakmont Partners, LLC., a private investment firm.  She is on the board of Lee Enterprises and the Jackson Hole Community School. Nancy and her husband David have owned property in Jackson for over 18 years.

Lisa Fleischman has worked for nearly 30 years in philanthropy and in nonprofit management at the National Gallery of Art and as a fund-raising consultant to nonprofits across the globe.  With her husband, Chuck, and their children, Lisa divides her time between Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Teton Village, Wyoming.

Chris Hartley, originally from southeast Kansas, retired in 1999 and with her husband, Ross, made Teton Village, Wyoming, her full time home.  Before moving to the Valley, she was active as a critical nurse instructor and nurse consultant in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.  Here in Jackson, she also serves on Grand Teton Music Festival’s board of directors.

Mark Newcomb is a Jackson native and a part owner of Exum Mountain Guides. He worked extensively in Grand Teton National Park throughout his guiding and mountaineering career, ski guiding in Alaska and France and leading expeditions all over the world.  He has also worked in marketing at Marmot and recently completed a dual Masters in Economics and Finance at the University of Wyoming.

Tom Saylak is president and CEO of Teewinot Holdings, a private family investment office.  Tom spent 25 years in the commercial real estate business before retiring in 2006.  He and his wife, Laurie, have been visiting Jackson with their families since the 1960s and purchased their own home near Moose in 1998.  Tom is an avid golfer, sailor and fly fisherman.

Andrea Bent’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility began in the early 1990s while she was pursuing her undergraduate education in Political Science and her JD in Chicago.  Her career has encompassed law, finance and significant pro bono work.  Andrea moved to Jackson with her husband and daughter in 2004.  She teaches yoga part time at studios in Jackson and Wilson. 

Ron Harrison first visited Grand Teton as a child with his parents in the 1940s. In 1980 he acquired a small farm near Victor, Idaho, and built a second home for his family and moved to Jackson full time in 1990 to build and operate the Rusty Parrot Lodge.  He and his wife, Sandy, spend part of the year in the Hill Country of Texas just outside of Austin.

About Grand Teton National Park Foundation

Grand Teton National Park Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to fund projects that protect and enhance Grand Teton National Park’s treasured resources.  By funding initiatives that go beyond what the NPS could accomplish on its own, the Foundation initiates improvements, critical research, and projects that enhance visitors’ experiences, creating a solid future for Grand Teton.  Since 1997, the organization has raised more than $20 million for education-based capital projects, work-and-learn programs that connect youth to nature, and wildlife research and protection.

To learn more about Grand Teton National Park Foundation, visit www.gtnpf.org or follow the organization’s daily updates at www.twitter.com/GrandTetonFdn and www.facebook/gtnpf. 

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Message from Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott

As spring arrives with promise and rebirth, it’s the perfect time to contemplate this year’s fresh, new initiatives at Grand Teton.

Through a partnership with the Student Conservation Association and Teton Science Schools, plus matching private funds from the Foundation, we hosted our first NPS Academy to introduce college students to careers with the National Park Service. Twenty-nine students with diverse backgrounds spent spring break learning about the NPS and exploring the park; and from all indications, that single week changed their lives and those of our employees. The students connected to the incomparable landscape as they considered their future and their legacy: they formed meaningful relationships with each other and reinvigorated park staff. This pilot program turned into something greater than we’d imagined, and we intend to spread its vitality and success. The next step places students into summer internships at national parks across the country. Through the help of our partners, Grand Teton will influence present and future generations as it develops new land stewards and conservation advocates.

Another significant project involves the David T. Vernon Indian Art Collection. With help from the Foundation, we will better protect these artifacts that were gifted by Laurance Rockefeller and are unique within the NPS. Planning is underway for displaying and interpreting representative pieces while also preserving the collection through proper museum procedures. In 2005, half of the collection was sent to Tucson’s Western Archeological and Conservation Center for curatorial treatment; the other half will receive treatment this fall. Colter Bay Visitor Center will be rehabilitated and several pieces returned in 2012 to special exhibit cases in Colter Bay and Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center. This project will conserve the collection and improve understanding of its inherent value as a part of America’s heritage.

The Discovery Center’s auditorium opened in mid-April and already it’s become an integral part of the visitor center experience: a cozy and inspiring spot. Foundation donors provided 100% of the funding for construction, completing the facility as it was originally intended and creating an impressive space to showcase educational presentations.

Through our dedicated workforce and dynamic partners, we are advancing truly innovative and beneficial initiatives. It’s an exciting time to join hands, hearts and minds to care for a precious landscape we all dearly love.

The Wolverine: Addressing Conservation Challenges for a Rare, Long-Distance Traveler

In the Rocky Mountain states, wolverines once ranged widely throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Now, largely due to persecution by western settlers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, their range is constricted. The known breeding range of this second largest member of the weasel family (only sea otters are larger) no longer includes Colorado, and its southern boundary is in Grand Teton National Park.

Wolverines are short, compact, and powerful animals weighing 20-40 pounds, with males generally about a third larger than females. Like Canada lynx, their feet are large relative to body size, making them especially suited for snow travel. Like bears, their reproductive rate is low. Breeding commences at 4 years of age or older, occurs only every 2-3 years, and produces litter sizes of just over 1 cub on average. Like wolves, wolverines are highly territorial. Overlap of same-sex individual home ranges averages less than 1%. And like cougars, wolverines are independent and nonsocial for most of the year. But unlike other carnivores, wolverines naturally occur at super low densities. In the Yellowstone ecosystem, estimates suggest over 100 square miles of wildlands are needed to support one wolverine.

Long-term research in the Yellowstone region by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and others has revealed that just two breeding female and two breeding male wolverines occupy the entire Teton Range, where they prefer high elevation, rugged, and snowy terrain. They scavenge ungulate carcasses in winter, prey on marmots and other small mammals during summer, and den under the mid-winter snowpack in huge tree debris piles created by avalanches. Offspring accompany their mother for about a year before they disperse from the area.

Researchers also discovered that, owing to their low numbers on the landscape, dispersing wolverines must make large movements, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles in search of a mate and breeding territory and crossing low-elevation valleys between mountain ranges in the process. Recently, one radio-marked wolverine moved from just east of Grand Teton National Park to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. These traits point toward a daunting challenge for long-term wolverine conservation, one that will involve coordinating large-scale land management decisions among many competing entities. Indeed, the wolverine may be the perfect poster child for promoting future wildland connectivity in the Rocky Mountains.

Planning for wolverine protection will require knowledge of their distribution and population trends. In an exciting new project, park biologists are collaborating with WCS on testing a noninvasive approach for conducting wolverine inventories. The technique, originally developed in Alaska, involves attracting animals to hanging bait where remote cameras are positioned to photograph individually unique markings and reproductive attributes. This enables researchers to determine sex and reproductive status of individuals. Hairs for DNA sampling are also collected at the site. By locating these stations in a systematic grid across the landscape and creating libraries of individual markings, DNA profiles, and numbers of lactating females, we hope to accurately estimate wolverine numbers and whether or not breeding is occurring in a given region. We believe that developing this technique is a critical step for effective wolverine conservation.

Steve Cain
Senior Wildlife Biologist
Grand Teton National Park

Bob Inman
Director, Greater Yellowstone Wolverine Program
Wildlife Conservation Society

Message from President Leslie Mattson

Lately, I’ve been intrigued by good ideas that spread in a multitude of directions. The Foundation is an example of this—we were formed to build the visitor center but that one monumental undertaking branched into a wealth of projects and thousands of supporters.

When visitor center donors wanted to do more, funding was directed to wildlife research, allowing park biologists to significantly contribute to the knowledge building within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The information not only benefits this region, but it informs national decisions and helps other biologists who are facing similar challenges around the world.

Our donors also believed that pairing teens with the outdoors would be a worthy concept to support. Their gifts brought the first youth crew into the park to work on trails and learn about conservation in 2006. This project led to a flourishing multicultural program that is helping Grand Teton attract a young, diverse audience. Addressing diversity challenges sparked this spring’s NPS Academy, a career prep initiative that introduces college students to jobs at national parks. Mary Gibson Scott talks about this incredible effort in her column, but the exciting takeaway is that the academy is already poised to expand well beyond Grand Teton’s borders.

And, finally, one of the best developments this year is that we have been able to leverage your private sector dollars to help the park receive federal grants, which doubled funding for important youth and wildlife programs during a time of significant budget cuts.

Your gifts to the Foundation often reach farther than we ever expect. They bring your favorite programs to life, but they also lead to opportunities we never imagined and touch many people along the way. Thank you for supporting our work in the park; we can’t wait to see how it grows!

Tax Changes May Increase Charitable Gifts

After 2010’s estate tax uncertainties, 2011 and 2012 will provide people a two-year window in which they know what to expect. As a result, many people are thinking about estate planning and how they can maximize inheritance to loved ones and gifts to the nonprofits they wish to support:

•  People 70 ½ and older can give nonprofits up to $100, 000 tax-free from their individual retirement accounts 
• Low interest rates create a great environment for setting up certain charitable trusts 

Thinking about the future begins today. Talk with your financial advisor about creating a strategy that’s right for you and how the Foundation can play a role in your charitable estate plan. Visit www.gtnpf.org/horace.php for more information about the Horace Albright Society or contact Kim Mills at 307-732-4192.

Introducing Education, Technology, and an Unforgettable View

Auditorium and website funded through $3.2 million in gifts by Foundation donors

The Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center auditorium is open! The new 150-seat addition combines state-of-the-art technology with a picture window that frames the Teton Range to create Jackson’s most scenic venue for lectures and films. Complementing the educational components in the visitor center, the facility’s offerings include a National Park Service film and lecture series as well as music and community-sponsored presentations.

In addition, http://www.discovergrandteton.org/ will launch this summer and provide trip planning and educational information that includes wildlife, geology, park history, and Junior Ranger programs. Videos, webcams, games, and electronic field trips will be featured as well to advance the park’s overall interpretive scheme and connect with a tech-savvy audience. Future plans include interactive e-hikes and mobile apps.

For upcoming auditorium events, visit www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/special.htm. 

Renowned Scientist to Speak at Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center Auditorium

Grand Teton National Park Foundation board member, Dr. Robert Smith, will share his experiences and geologic discoveries in the greater Yellowstone-Teton region as part of Grand Teton National Park’s Speaker Series 2011.

Jackson, Wyoming – June 23, 2011 Grand Teton National Park Foundation Board Member Dr. Robert B. Smith, an award-winning research professor and emeritus professor of geophysics and geology at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, will deliver a retrospective of his distinguished career in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem on June 30, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. A Living, Breathing, Shaking Career will be held in the new auditorium at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center in Moose, Wyoming. The lecture is part of a larger series that will run from June 27 to August 30 and will feature nine talks that center on a variety of topics. The public is invited to attend; seating is available for the first 150 people to arrive. Dr. Smith has conducted research in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks for more than fifty years and is the co-author of Windows Into the Earth—The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. His research has predominantly focused on earthquakes and volcanoes and the role giant forces from these natural features have played in shaping northwestern Wyoming and the western U.S.

“Bob has been a tremendous asset to our organization,” Foundation President Leslie Mattson said. “Not only does he help us understand up-to-the minute information about an active park that is constantly changing, he has been invaluable to park managers and the greater region when it comes to interpreting the area’s geologic events so decision makers can respond effectively.”

Beginning in the early 1970s Dr. Smith initiated his studies of earthquakes and ground motions of Jackson Hole, later conducting seismic surveys of Jackson Lake and age dating of the Teton fault. These investigations led to an understanding of the Teton fault and its role in geologic evolution and earthquake hazards of the region. In addition, he founded the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, which monitors volcanic and earthquake unrest in the Yellowstone National Park region, the site of the largest and most diverse collection of natural thermal features in the world. His contributions also include launching the University of Utah’s Seismograph Stations, a research, educational, and public service group that operates a regional and urban seismic network of more than 200 stations that serve Utah, eastern Idaho, and western Wyoming. Dr. Smith has been a visiting professor at Columbia University, Cambridge University, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.

To learn more about Dr. Robert B. Smith’s teaching and research, visit http://www.uusatrg.utah.edu/RBSMITH/public_html/rbs-home.index.html.

To learn more about Grand Teton National Park Foundation, visit http://www.gtnpf.org/ or follow the organization’s daily updates at www.twitter.com/GrandTetonFdn and www.facebook/gtnpf.

To learn more about Grand Teton National Park, visit http://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm or follow the park’s updates at http://twitter.com/#!/grandtetonnps and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grand-Teton-National-Park-Official-Page/130250293656242. For details about Speaker Series 2011, contact the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center at 307-739-3399.

About Dr. Robert B. Smith
Professor Robert B. Smith has had a distinguished career as a university professor, a research geophysicist, an ardent supporter of and contributor to understanding the causes and effects of earthquakes and volcanoes, and an articulate national and international witness to the hazards and risks posed by these active geologic processes. In addition to his many honors and awards from academic and professional societies, he received a US Department of Interior Career Research Award in 2006; the NPS Award for Contributions to the Geologic Understanding of Yellowstone in 2008; and he received the NPS Intermountain Director’s Award for Natural Resources Research in 2009 for his research and for communicating his knowledge of the geology of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. Bob lives in Moose, Wyoming, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

About Grand Teton National Park Foundation
Grand Teton National Park Foundation provides private financial support for special projects that enhance and protect Grand Teton National Park's treasured resources. Since 1997, the organization has raised more than $20 million for education-based capital projects, work-and-learn programs that connect youth to nature, and wildlife research and protection. By funding initiatives that go beyond what the National Park Service could accomplish on its own, Foundation friends solve park challenges and create a solid future for Grand Teton.

About Grand Teton National Park
Located in northwestern Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park preserves a spectacular landscape rich with majestic mountains, pristine lakes and extraordinary wildlife. The park's world-renowned scenery attracts nearly four million visitors per year, and offers an array of recreational activities for all ages and all abilities. Grand Teton National Park (310,000 acres) lies at the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Area: a 22-million-acre ecosystem that includes immeasurable natural resources and priceless historic and cultural treasures.