My research is focused primarily on climate variability and its role in driving biological and physical components of mountainous ecosystems of western North America. In addressing these issues I use instrumental and tree-ring based records of climate to assess the time intervals and spatial scales over which these processes operate. Of particular interest is the influence of interdecadal climate regimes, long-term temperature trends, and ocean-atmosphere teleconnections in driving glacier mass balance fluctuations and forest disturbance events. Several recently completed projects (and collaborations) provided estimates of fluctuations in glacier mass balance for the northern U.S. and Canadian Rockies over the past 300 years.  Other studies have addressed the susceptibility of natural resources and ecosystem services within national parks and protected areas to climate variability. See publications for PDF copies of peer reviewed articles on these topics. A mostly complete list of manuscripts in press, in prep, or under review may be found in a downloadable PDF version of my C.V.  I am happy to send along copies of these manuscripts depending upon the publication status of the article.

Currently, multiple projects are nearing completeion, and several new research projects are just getting underway.  Two projects with manuscripts currently in prepariation and nearing submission include 1) High resolution, tree-ring based spatial reconstructions of snow avalanche activity in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA, and 2) An analysis of patterns and trends in western Montana 20^th century temperature change using long-term daily, montly, and seasonal meteorological station data.  Products for both projects will be available soon, and the western Montana temperature analysis project will include an extensive, interactive on-line resource summarizing results, explaining analysis methods, and serving an archive of data-based graphics - for the region and on a station-by-station basis. 

Newly initiated projects continue on with the theme of further utilizing and developing 20^th century instrumental/ observational records, and tree-ring based proxy climate records.  The central research goal of each of the four new studies is to develop a greater understanding of current and historic changes in water resources as driven by mountain snowpack, temperature, and summer drought.  The four new projects are as follow: 1) A pilot study on the feasibility of producing spatial reconstructions of snowpack (or Snow Water Equivalent, SWE) for Western North America, 2) a millennial length reconstruction of Colorado river flow at Lee's Ferry using methods designed to extract ultra low-frequency variability from tree-ring records, 3) developing both past and future estimates of hydrologic mass contribution of glaciers in the Wind River Range of Wyoming to the base flow of the Missouri River, and 4) an in-depth study of changes in the variability and timing of snowmelt, and the impacts on hydrologic resources and timing of peak flow of the major river systems within the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.  Ultimately, the research products and information provided by these studies will supply water resource managers with greater information on variability and trends in hydrologic resources.  The data will also allow for further research into linkages between winter snowpack and ocean-atmosphere teleconnections, a greater understanding of how precipitation influenced glacier dynamics throughout the Little Ice Age, and investigation of other climate driven ecological impacts such as forest fires and widespread beatle outbreaks.

This work is interdiciplinary and would not be possible without the collaboration of friends/collogues, and the institutions they work for.  Funding is critical as well, and has largely been provided by 1) the U.S. Geological Survey - Norther Rocky Mountain Science Center (NRMSC), 2) the Nationtional Science Foundataion (NSF) Geography and Regonal Science, and Earth System History programs, and 3) The Big Sky Institute at Montana State University. 

Mostly though, if I’m not working on these projects, I’d rather be skiing, floating a river, or biking.