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.