Director maps out future of biological station

One year after he was introduced as the incoming director for the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, Jim Elser will provide his vision for the facility’s future at the station’s annual open house on Wednesday.

Elser officially took the helm from longtime director Jack Stanford on March 1. Stanford worked at the renowned research facility for more than 35 years.

The new director said he’s looking forward to strengthening the station’s relationship with local schools while increasing the facility’s reach within other university departments.

“Summer classes have always been a treasure” at the college, he said. “I think the summer session can be bigger, better and more diverse than it is right now.”

He hopes to expand the university’s offerings with engineering classes focused on building environmental sensors, along with courses to teach students how to handle and analyze large scientific datasets.

With his wife, Monica, also working for the facility as the liaison with the local educational community, he said there will be more opportunities for K-12 students to learn alongside researchers making scientific discoveries in their backyard.

“Every kid that goes to school and grows up in the Flathead basin, I think ought to know the names of the organisms they see every day and understand the microorganisms moving around in there,” he said.

Beyond community relations, he said he also has been working to strengthen his department’s research staff, and recently filled one of two open tenure-track positions. Matt Church, an oceanographer from the University of Hawaii, will be joining the faculty as the new aquatic microbial ecology researcher while Elser continues to look for a stream ecologist.

He also has been building collaborative partnerships with researchers in other aquatic alpine environments across the globe, including Tibet and the Patagonia region of Argentina.

“One of my larger goals is to sort of make the bio station a central place that people around the world come to and think about when they are interested in aspects of ecological systems in mountain regions,” he said. “Ultimately, the goal is to make the bio station this fulcrum of alpine ecology and aquatic ecosystems which I think is increasing in importance with all the changes going on in mountain regions as climate change unfolds.”

Aside from his faculty-related obligations to work on grant applications and his ongoing research and monitoring work, Elser said he has spent much of the past few months getting to know the many groups and individuals in the region that have a stake in the health of the Flathead Lake basin, and by extension, the biological station as well.

Locals know that summer is the busy season in the tourist-dependent communities that surround Flathead Lake, and Elser said the biological station is no exception. But he said even with a packed schedule that leaves little time for fly fishing, he still feels like he’s on sabbatical in Northwest Montana.

“You’re still working, but you’re in a new place, so there’s a lot of discovery going on, and you’re trying to learn about a new community,” he said, adding, “It doesn’t feel like a real job yet.”

Wednesday’s open house at the Flathead Lake Biological Station, located in Yellow Bay about 14 miles south of Bigfork, takes place from 1 to 5 p.m.

Elser will give his presentation, “The Future of Science at the Bio Station,” at 3:15 p.m.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet invasive mussel detection dogs Rosebud and Ismay every half hour, and the Montana Bird Lady will give presentations including a live prairie falcon and rough-legged hawk during presentations at 1, 1:30 and 2:15 p.m.

Free cruises on the bio station’s research boat depart at 1:10, 1:45, 2:20, 2:55 and 4:05 p.m. Nature walks and guided station tours are scheduled for 1:45 and 4 p.m.

For more information about the biological station or the open house, visit flbs.umt.edu or call 406-982-3301.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.