Entry - September 13, 1936

9.00 We got a good snow in the Mts today and they are all covered and sure do look fine. It is very much colder today.

We had a big time today hunting gophers with the three dogs that are the camp pets.

Robert

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Comments from Chris

Glacier National Park is a different place from when Robert was there 79 years ago. We could look at many differences, but today I'm talking about the size of the glaciers. The glaciers have significantly receded in this time and some have completely gone away. There are estimates that between 2020 and 2030 there will be no more glaciers in the park. 

The effect of losing the glaciers is felt at many levels in the ecosystem. A glacier is basically a large amount of hard packed freshwater ice. In a warming cycle, that water feeds many mountainous streams which feed rivers in the surrounding areas. Disappearing glaciers mean the streams dry up. When the streams are gone, the fish disappear and the animals that eat the fish disappear. The surrounding area dries up, so the animals and plants which rely on drinking water change. The river levels lower. Farmers and ranchers have a harder time getting water. It continues on and on. I'm sure there are blogs dedicated just to this.

You can see the changes in the photos below. I've also included a few links to websites that have before and after photos. They are very interesting. 

Many times I find that some of these blog posts have deep subjects I could really dig in to, but my intent here is just to scratch the surface and hopefully spark your interest. This is one of those subjects. Glaciers in general over recent history are very interesting. As many of my readers are in the Nashville and Southern Illinois area, I encourage you to look in to the history of glaciers in this area. It wasn't that long ago that 85% of Illinois was covered in thousands of feet of ice which reached down to about the Ohio River.

Glacier Photo Links:
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/03/photos-taken-100-years-apart-show-how.html
http://nrmsc.usgs.gov/repeatphoto/

Grinnel Glacier in 1940
Unknown Photographer Courtesy of GNP Archives

Grinnel Glacier in 2006
Karen Holzer photo, USGS