2007 Produce WBP Diorama

Project:   Produce Graphics for Whitebark Pine Diorama

Attachment: Smith_2007_REPORT

Agency/Forest or Park/District:   USDA FS, RMRS, Fire Science Laboratory, Missoula, MT

Project coordinator:   Jane Kapler Smith

Contact:   Jane Kapler Smith- Ecologist, Fire Science Laboratory, 5775 W. Highway 10, Missoula, MT  59808   406-329-4805   jsmith09@fs.fed.us

Cooperators

Arnie Olsen, Director Montana Natural History Center; Diana Tomback, Professor U. Colorado-Denver, Director Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation; Anna Sala, Professor U. Montana; Susan Reel, Conservation Education Director Lolo National Forest.

Source of funding /amount

FHP: $3,100

Supplemental funding: $2,450 from Rocky Mountain Research Station for design, $1,250 from Fire Science Lab for obtaining the snag, $500 from Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation for supplies, $384 and $3,050 from the Fire Science Lab for salary and coordination, and $825 from the Montana Natural History Center (MNHC) for construction.

Dates of restoration efforts:  Summer 2007

Objectives

Communicate WBP ecolgy and need for restoration to the public through high-quality diorama.

Acres/ha treated

N/A

Methods

The WBP diorama is a large display (12’ wide, 11’ high and 8’ deep) using real biological specimens, constructed in front of a dramatic photo of WBP on a high ridge. This proposal requests funding to produce the graphics, thus completing the diorama started in 2005 with various founding sources.

Planting? If so, source of seedlings? Resistance?

N/A

Outcome

Support from the Whitebark Pine Restoration Project was the last piece of the puzzle needed to finish this 3-year educational project.  The display was visited by a small group who attended a field trip to a whitebark pine site in the Swan Range on Sept. 22, and the completed display was officially opened to the public on September 26, when it formed the background for a presentation about whitebark pine ecology to 20 members of the public, given by University of Colorado at Denver Professor Diana Tomback.

An article on the display will be published in the next issue of Nutcracker Notes, and an article is in preparation for the Montana Natural History Center’s Montana Naturalist.

The Project Contact will inspect the display each year to make sure its quality is maintained. The Montana Natural History Center will record the approximate number of students/teachers/adults or visitors viewing the display each year.

Monitoring since completion of the project  N/A

            Dates

            Plans for future monitoring?

Will outcome meet goals?

Yes