WA’s Receding Snowpacks – Bill Baccus (Olympic NPS) and What We Can Do – Betsy Robblee (The Mountaineers) (Instructor Lecture)

Join us for our second Instructor Lecture of the BCC 2023 season, where we’ll dive into the research that the Olympic National Park Service performs on Washington’s receding snowpacks, glaciers, and how climate change is affecting the areas we recreate. We will also hear from The Mountaineers Conservation and Advocacy Director Betsy Robblee (BCC ’17) about what we can do to address climate change as recreationists from the lens of policy and advocacy.

This lecture will be “classroom style,” Bill and Betsy will be inviting conversation and questions throughout their talks

About Bill Baccus: Bill has been working with Olympic NPS for over 35 years (!). He’s a scientist with the North Coast and Cascades Network, working across all of the National Parks – Mt. Rainier, North Cascades, San Juan Historic Park, and Lewis & Clark. Bill works with vital signs & long-term ecosystems of these parks, monitoring the climate, air quality, mountain lakes, tides, glaciers, and changes of all of these elements. He’s given talks like these for 15 years and we are honored to host him for the first time with the Washington Alpine Club.

Did you know? National Parks are responsible for funding their own glacier studies, and because glaciers are a lower-priority in Olympic NP, these have never been funded by the government. Instead, the work that Bill and his colleagues do are supported by the WA National Park Fund. Since 2014, these donations have led to important discoveries including the fact that glaciers in Olympic NP are changing at a more rapid pace than any other NP in Washington state.

Learn more about WA National Park Fund and consider donating to support this important work: https://wnpf.org

About Betsy Robblee: Betsy is the Conservation and Advocacy Director at the Mountaineers. As the Conservation and Advocacy Director, Betsy leads The Mountaineers conservation and advocacy programming, including driving partnerships, executing advocacy campaigns and communications, and supporting fundraising efforts that result in long-term outcomes to protect public lands and the outdoor experience. Betsy joined The Mountaineers with ten years of experience in policy, advocacy, and community engagement experience. She previously served as the Policy and Outreach Manager at the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, where she led advocacy campaigns in support of funding for conservation and recreation projects in Washington state. Earlier in her career, she spent six years in Washington, DC as a legislative aide to Senator Patty Murray and Congressman Rick Larsen.