Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS) puts price on Flathead Lake

The goal is clear, according to Jack Stanford, director of the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS). "We need to understand what the value of this resource is in economic terms," he said, referring to the Crown of the Continent’s "crown jewel" – Flathead Lake. Stanford said estimates by a UM economist put that economic value between $6 to $10 billion dollars.

Stanford’s presentation "Mines, bears and urbanization of mountain landscapes: Science and culture in the Crown of the Continent Ecoregion" was the third lecture in a series held each Thursday evening this summer at the FLBS.

Calling the Flathead ecosystem "one of the more well-studied areas on the planet," Stanford presented a number of statistics gathered over years of study, such as the more than 400 insects and other aquatic organisms living in Flathead Lake and the river systems that feed the ecosystem’s broad diversity of fish, birds and mammals. Stanford described the Nyack Floodplain as supporting 67 percent of the plants known to the Crown of the Continent ecosystem. He spoke of the Nyack’s "shifting habitat mosaic" of floodplain benches, spring brooks, seasonally flooded channels and intermittent pools and ponds that support spotted frogs, bull trout, cutthroat trout and more than 100 taxa of invertebrate species, vascular plants and elk calving and spring grizzly bear foraging grounds. That mosaic of habitats supports "more collective species of carnivores than anywhere in North America," he said.

By JOHN MUELLER
Bigfork Eagle

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