JHStyle Magazine Winter/Spring 2023-24

Trevor replicated Craighead’s 1971 study and
book titled, “For Everything There is a Season:
The Sequence of Natural Events in the Grand
Teton-Yellowstone Area,” and found that so far,
the onset of spring has advanced by 17 days. “The
study is ongoing, and it has a citizen science project
called ‘Wildflower Watch.’ Grand Teton National
Park leads daily tours that include Wildflower
Watch for visitors,” Trevor says. A documentary
film on the study, “For Everything There Was a
Season,” was released at premieres in the fall
around the West, and Trevor plans to submit it to
various film festivals.
Another ongoing study is of cheatgrass, an invasive
plant originally from Greece and Turkey with devastating
ecological impacts to native wildlife — and
for fire danger. Trevor’s study takes place on Saddle
Butte behind the National Museum of Wildlife Art,
where they have planted over 5,000 native plants
and displays with information on the research, free
and open to the public as part of the Greater Yellowstone
Botanical Tour.
The final study consists of 27 game cameras across
Bridger-Teton National Forest lands along the
greater Cache Creek and Snow King trail system to
study human recreation impacts on wildlife behavior
in critical habitat areas. “There’s a misconception
that recreation is conservation, and that’s not
true. We have a tremendous impact on the wildlife,”
Trevor says. “So far we have a good coexistence
here, but the study is ongoing, and a certain threshold
of users may change that. So we hope this study
will inform future decisions.” An avid recreationalist
as well, Trevor tries to study the balance of
mountain sports and wildlife conservation from a
scientific perspective to benefit all sides.
The passion and industriousness of Trevor, his
team of wildlife guides, and his fellow researchers
is an inspiration, and a continuation of the muchneeded
voices that selflessly advocate for the
ecosystem which makes this place special. “What
needs to happen today to prevent the loss of this
ecosystem in the face of intense human demand
is a difficult question,” he says. “To create it was
at the expense of people, and it will so be in the
future, too. But we can go other places, and the
wildlife that live here cannot.”
To see Trevor’s latest documentary, “For Everything
There Was a Season,” or schedule of film premieres
and festivals, keep an eye on the “Exposure” page at
GuidesofJacksonHole.com. n
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JHStyleMagazine.com | WINTER • SPRING 2023-2024