Research and Outreach Goals

At AERI, we focus on understanding mountain ecosystems' cultural, biological, and ecological importance through sound multi-disciplinary research. We prioritize public education and inclusive public participation.

PaleoCultural Research Group

Yellowstone Gateway Museum

Park County Environmental Council

Ecology Project International

AERI began with its roots in the BEAAR Project, which begins its 9th season of active interdisciplinary research in 2026. The BEAAR Project, founded by Scott Dersam as a master's thesis and dissertation project, has taken public volunteers and interested students into the field since 2018, gathering thousands of data points and diagnostic artifacts. Scott and his crew found "hints" of Clovis-age reduction styles on their first year of doing research through the BEAAR Project. However, these speculations were confirmed several years later when Scott and other volunteers Clovis-age projectile points and bifaces in the study area. These are the first discoveries of Clovis-age artifacts at high elevation, and were discovered in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).

paleoecological studies ranging from modern biological and ecological diversity surveys
high-elevation ice patch coring
cryosphere dendrochronology
sediment sampling,
high-elevation lake sediment sampling
isotopic analysis

AERI is also looking to the future, creating research and student learning opportunities beyond the alpine ecosystems of the GYE. We are preparing for multiple upcoming research venues in other Montana plains and Rocky Mountain ecosystems. In 2023, the AERI began researching in the Bridger Range of southwest Montana, with plans to begin geophysical, ground penetrating radar, and taphonomic studies on the range of potential study areas in the coming seasons.

The cultural data discovered by this work has broadened our understanding of mountain use within the central Rockies, the Yellowstone Plateau, and potentially globally. In 2022, the BEAAR Project discovered North America's oldest known mountain-associated sites, the only concentrated associations of the Clovis techno-complex in a high-elevation montane setting. The Mountain Home site, the Sheep’s Path site, & the Shady Grove site are each Clovis culture localities make up the paleo landscape in high elevation places within the GYE. These sites fundamentally change our understanding of the earliest confirmed populations on the continent, enabling the investigation of a new facet of the Clovis culture—high-elevation seasonal landscape use.

Currently, AERI is diving into our newly discovered Clovis localities. These sites offer a unique cultural proxy for testing our current understanding of glacial retreat and regrowth during the Late Pleistocene. To assess the association of these 12,000 – 13,000-year-old sites and the rate of retreat of the Pinedale Glacier, the AERI is conducting a thorough paleoecological reconstruction of the sites' immediate glacial cirques. This will be accomplished via lake sediment coring, soil DNA extraction, isotopic analysis, terminal glacial moraine boulder rind cosmogenic BE-10 dating, OSL dating, radiocarbon dating, obsidian hydration, drone-assisted LIDAR mapping, and GPR subsurface mapping.

Other notable discoveries include the only known high-elevation Late Paleoindian (~8,000 – 10,000 years before present) stone tool cache in Montana, the highest-elevation ceramic manufacturing site in the GYE, the highest elevation occurrence of ceramics in Montana, and the highest-elevation stone occupation and hunting features in Montana. Some of these features are the highest known stone circles in the Continental US.

Publications

The other side of the mountain: variability in occupation behavior between interconnected mountain ranges

Scott Dersam and Sari B. Dersam, 2023

The other side of the mountain is Dr. Scott Dersam's and Sari B. Dersam's contribution to the a special issue through Hunter Gatherer Research with guest editor Dr. Scott Dersam. Scott and Sari used diversity indices to compare trends in tool types and material types across multiple temporal periods and between two interconnected mountain ranges to contextualize how climate, environment, and geology can drastically influence the human use of mountainous ecosystems, even when they are interconnected.

The way of winds: spatial arrangement of archeological sites and surface wind patterns in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, USA

Sari B. Dersam and Scott W. Dersam, 2023

This is Sari B. Dersam's and Dr. Scott Dersam's contribution to the a special issue through Hunter Gatherer Research with guest editor Dr. Scott Dersam. Sari and Scott combined a geospatial study of surface wind patterns, mosquito ecology and behavior, and archaeological site patterning at high elevation to contextualize the potential effect of wind patterns on human behavior and settlement patterning.

Modeling Dynamic Variables: Wind, Mosquito Ecology, and High Elevation Archaeological Site Location

Sari B. Dersam, 2022

This is Sari B. Dersam's master's thesis. Sari combined a geospatial study of surface wind patterns, mosquito ecology and behavior, and archaeological site patterning to contextualize the potential effect of wind on human behavior and settlement patterning.

The Mountain Home: Spatial and Optimal Foraging Assessments of Hunter-Gatherer Mountain Landscape Use in the Beartooth Mountains, Montana

Scott W. Dersam, 2022

The Mountain Home is Dr. Scott Dersam's Ph.D. dissertation. It is a human behavioral ecology study focused on the diet breadth and hunting strategies of people living at high elevation.