The US Forest Service, which manages the Mendenhall Glacier, says "because glaciers are a product of climate, they respond to climate change."[5] The Mendenhall glacier has been in retreat since the end of the Little Ice Age in the 1700s.[6] In a joint article for the Juneau Empire Geologist Cathy Connor and Geophysicist Roman Motyka, both professors of the University of Alaska said "climatic warming coupled with ice loss through iceberg calving are the reasons the Mendenhall Glacier is retreating and shrinking.