Vegetation - Piegan Glacier

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 Notice how the rounded profile of the tallest trees (whitebark pine) in back of the meadow have been replaced by the spikey- topped sub-alpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) in the 1998 photo.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.