Partnership Helps Save Local Osprey Nest

SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake Elementary junior high gathered in the snow and sleet Dec. 19 as Missoula Electric Cooperative installed a new 45-foot pole and osprey nesting platform on the corner of Riverview Drive and Highway 83. The effort was a partnership between SLE junior high science teacher Patti Bartlett Gladstone and her students, who have been taking an in-depth look at ospreys and businesses Missoula Electric Cooperative and Pyramid Mountain Lumber.

Bartlett Gladstone was one of five teachers selected for the Wings Over Water program through the Montana Natural History Center. Wings Over Water brings STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) research into middle-school classrooms and sparks student interest in biology, physics, chemistry, math, and aerospace engineering, through an in-depth case study of the Osprey.

"My primary goal is to make us better stewards of the land and look for ways to improve life for others [including animals]," said Bartlett Gladstone. "I'm all about anything that can get us outdoors."

Bartlett Gladstone attended a multi-day, field-based summer training at the University of Montana where she and the other teachers learned about osprey. Then they took the STEM curriculum back to their classrooms where they tailored it to their individual needs. Bartlett Gladstone is still working on the Indian Education for All components that will include the bringing in information about the Blackfeet and Salish and Kootenai tribes. While the Blackfeet primarily ate buffalo, there were cases where they utilized fish as a food source. Fish was the primary meat for the Salish and Kootenai people.

Initially Bartlett Gladstone wanted to look at the osprey chicks born by Clearwater Junction and establish a baseline to see if they had elevated levels of mercury like chicks on the Clark Fork. However, when she saw the new osprey nest at the corner of Riverview Drive and Highway 83 this summer, she quickly shifted gears.

The nest was built on top of the power pole with active high-tension power lines.

"When those nests get wet it can arch electricity from one line to another and it will either start the pole on fire and/or knock out power for everybody," said Bartlett Gladstone. "I knew they were going to tear it down."

Bartlett Gladstone spoke with Bart Peterson, manager of operations for Missoula Electric Cooperative, to start the process of moving the nest.

Back in the classroom, the students made a wind tunnel and tested different air foils to see how they flew. Then they designed their own wings to see what they could get to fly.

"If it didn't work they had to go back and work on the design. This was the engineering process that was really fun," said Bartlett Gladstone.

Then the students built osprey nest platforms. They learned that osprey nests weigh 200-400 pounds so they need to be sturdy, drain water and be able to withstand wind. Their models were tested with a fan to simulate wind, a water spray bottle to make sure they would drain and had to support a 240 gram mass.

"The mass slid right off [one some]. They had to go back to the engineering phase and make corrections," said Bartlett Gladstone. "When you have those challenges and you have to work as a team and trouble shoot things, that is really good learning opportunities when you have to put all those things in play."

Bartlett Gladstone is hoping to bring her students to the Missoula Airport and to the wind lab in Missoula this spring to learn more about the physics of flight as well as dive into the biology of osprey.

Despite numerous power outages and snow and rain, the class gathered at Riverview Drive Dec. 19 to watch MEC erect the new osprey platform. MEC provided a new pole and mounted the osprey platform. Pyramid Mountain Lumber agreed to have the pole put on their land north of Riverview Drive.

"MEC is all about helping community and osprey," said Bartlett Gladstone. "They came up on the worst day in the world. It was the perfect partnership. Everyone was looking at what can we do for kids and what can we do for wildlife."

Osprey pairs mate for life so Bartlett Gladstone is hoping they will return to nest around April. MEC will tear the old nest down and she hopes the new platform will be enticing enough that the osprey will rebuild there.

Bartlett Gladstone said if they have a productive nest there is a possibility that they could put GPS trackers on the chicks to learn about the migration behaviors.

"It is a baby step that we have made into a great exploration," said Bartlett Gladstone. "I hope every  year to do a little more physics of flight. Anytime I can make physics more hands-on for kids [that] makes it more applicable to life and more fun."