Jack Potter: “Conscience of Glacier” leaves lasting legacy for park

More well-deserved kudos for Jack Potter, this time from the Missoulian . . .

Friends, colleagues and fellow conservationists call him the conscience of Glacier National Park, a fitting term of endearment for a somewhat unlikely candidate, particularly given Jack Potter’s humble beginnings.

He started his career with the National Park Service scraping dishes at a Many Glacier café and, having achieved the mantle of leadership over the next 41 years, helped shape some of the most influential resource protection policies of his time.

Vast expanses of wilderness remain rustic and undeveloped because of Potter’s influence, and his work has minimized the pressures of development along Glacier Park’s perimeter, preventing the park from becoming a “wilderness island” besieged by incompatible land uses.

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