Piegan Glacier 1930 -1998

NOTE: Proper credit for any of the photographs should include the photographer and the source (eg. T.J. Hileman, courtesy of Glacier National Park Archives). View the paired images to see examples of proper crediting for each photo. For more information see the section Use Guidelines and Proper Crediting.

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Piegan Glacier appears visibly unchanged in this pair, but the meadow in foreground has undergone significant vegetation change in Glacier National Park.

These photographs document another aspect of Glacier Park’s dynamic environment, vegetation change. Although Piegan Glacier has not melted noticeably, years of fire suppression and changing climate may have allowed the invasion of conifers in what was an open meadow in the foreground of the 1930 photo. Also, the demise of the ecologically important whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis ) is visually underscored in this pair of photos. Notice how the rounded profile of the tallest trees (whitebark pine) in back of the meadow have been replaced by the spikey- topped sub-alpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) in the 1998 photo. Dramatic declines of whitebark pine are cause primarily by white pine blister rust and fire exclusion.

PAIRED Piegan Glacier 1930 -1998
540x720 pixels (52 kb) format jpeg Piegan30_98.jpg (small file)
540x720 pixels (372 kb) format tif Piegan30_98.tif (small file)
powerpoint format (2.61 mb) Piegan30_98.ppt (large file)

HIGH RESOLUTION 1930 photograph by George Ruhle (Glacier National Park Archives)
1800x1404 pixels (856 kb) format jpeg Pgn930a.jpg (smaller file)
1800x1404 pixels (4.83 mb) format tif Pgn930a.tif (large file, 300dpi)
HIGH RESOLUTION 1998 photograph by Lisa McKeon (USGS)
1800x1195 pixels (873 kb) format jpeg PgnBW998a.jpg (small file)
1800x1195 pixels (4.04 mb) format tif PgnBW998a.tif (large file, 300dpi)