biography...

Jon Riedel is a geologist with the U.S. National Park Service at North Cascades National Park.  He holds a M.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin (1987) and a Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University (2007). For more than 30 years his research has focused on the sensitive response of Washington’s glaciers to climate change, from the last ice age 30,000 years ago to modern glaciers. Dr. Riedel's recent research into the distant past has focused on glaciation of the valley and environmental conditions during the last ice age. Jon established glacier monitoring programs at Olympic (2013), Mount Rainier (2003) and North Cascades (1993) national parks to track changes in more than 500 glaciers.  Recent publications from this data have quantified the changes in volume and runoff from glaciers in several regional watersheds. Jon also serves as president of the Skagit Climate Science Consortium, a nonprofit team of 13 researchers focused on studying the impacts of climate change in Puget Sound’s largest watershed.