Last night, Craig and Jess got sick. It was really a bummer. We were all pretty freaked out and we were trying to figure out where it came from. Thankfully, they felt a little better this morning, but they still seemed exhausted. Kudos to them for sticking it out and coming hiking! We are troopers!!!
During our hike, we stopped to talk about how the river looks green because of the reflection from the forest. I didn't know that and I thought it was really interesting. We learned that the park is a temperate rain forest- vegetation covers about 80% of the forest floor, and the leaf litter and organic matter that falls on the ground takes a long time to decompose. We also stopped to talk about a tree that had fallen due to its shallow roots and the wet soil.
Before we came to Glacier, we learned about how it was formed and how it became a National Park. Glacier National Park was combined with Canada's Waterton National Park, and now it's Waterton Glacier International Park, or Peace Park. There are over 150 glaciers in the park that helped carve the landscape by moving and depositing material. The continental divide is here at Triple Point. The west is rich in moisture and can receive 120" of precipitation per year. On the east side, it warms up and the precipitation is only 20". This impacts where the glaciers and retreating. There are a number of issues at Glacier National Park. First of all, the glaciers are really tiny and inaccessible to people. They are retreating at an alarming rate, but there is no concrete documented evidence that shows that climate change is causing the retreat. Scientists started measuring some temperature changes 20 years ago, but we do not have enough data from enough years to make any conclusions. Another issue is that ozone is impacting the trees as well as the Crater Lake area. Trees are becoming more vulnerable to stresses like bugs, diseases, and drought.
During our hike, we stopped to talk about how the river looks green because of the reflection from the forest. I didn't know that and I thought it was really interesting. We learned that the park is a temperate rain forest- vegetation covers about 80% of the forest floor, and the leaf litter and organic matter that falls on the ground takes a long time to decompose. We also stopped to talk about a tree that had fallen due to its shallow roots and the wet soil.
Before we came to Glacier, we learned about how it was formed and how it became a National Park. Glacier National Park was combined with Canada's Waterton National Park, and now it's Waterton Glacier International Park, or Peace Park. There are over 150 glaciers in the park that helped carve the landscape by moving and depositing material. The continental divide is here at Triple Point. The west is rich in moisture and can receive 120" of precipitation per year. On the east side, it warms up and the precipitation is only 20". This impacts where the glaciers and retreating. There are a number of issues at Glacier National Park. First of all, the glaciers are really tiny and inaccessible to people. They are retreating at an alarming rate, but there is no concrete documented evidence that shows that climate change is causing the retreat. Scientists started measuring some temperature changes 20 years ago, but we do not have enough data from enough years to make any conclusions. Another issue is that ozone is impacting the trees as well as the Crater Lake area. Trees are becoming more vulnerable to stresses like bugs, diseases, and drought.
No comments:
Post a Comment