According to an article in yesterday’s Daily Inter Lake, many of Glacier National Park’s lower altitude roads are now open. This includes the Camas Road and the inside North Fork Road from the Polebridge entrance north to Big Prairie.
Tag Archives: Glacier National Park
Another pile of money for Glacier Park
Besides the general infrastructure money announced a little over a week ago, Glacier National Park is getting $27.6 million in federal stimulus funding for repairs to Going-to-the-Sun Road. It will be used for work on the section between Big Bend and Logan Pass during next year’s construction season.
Yesterday’s Daily Inter Lake had the initial coverage. Today’s Missoulian has a lengthier, more detailed article.
More detail on stimulus funding for Glacier Park
An article in today’s Missoulian and another in the Daily Inter Lake provide more information on the recently announced allocation of federal stimulus money for Glacier National Park. $15.6 million will go toward renovations at Many Glacier Hotel, $1.5 million is for upgrading comfort stations for proper handicap access and around $400,000 will be used for backcountry trail and campground maintenance.
Glacier Park still needs about a gazillion dollars for work on Going-to-the-Sun Road. Any money for that purpose would be funneled through the Federal Highway Administration. No word on that yet.
Glacier National Park to get $17.5 million in stimulus funds
No word on how it will be spent yet, but Glacier National Park is getting $17.5 million for infrastructure work.
Here’s the lead from today’s online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .
Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester announced Wednesday that Montana’s national parks will receive $33.2 from the federal stimulus, more than half of which will sent to Glacier National Park.
Read the entire article . . .
NPCA information on North Fork and Glacier Park
With all the coverage the Trans-boundary Flathead has gotten over the past few weeks, it seemed appropriate to point out that the U.S.-based National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) also has a dog in that fight. They maintain a web page discussing the threats to Glacier Park and the adjoining Flathead River Valley arising from potential resource development in the Canadian Flathead, as well as links to a great deal of supporting material and related documentation. The NPCA is also advocating for the U.N. to designate Waterton-Glacier Park as an endangered World Heritage Site, a move that would focus additional international attention on the situation.
Spring Visitors
The North Fork Hostel and the Polebridge area got a nice write-up in the Helena Independent Record last Thursday . . .
I awoke to a thump-thump-thump sound of fresh spring snow blowing off the trees and landing on the metal roof.
It was morning in North Fork Country.
Situated next to Glacier National Park’s western boundary about 20 miles south of the Canadian border, Polebridge offers visitors a relaxed attitude and sweeping views of the Livingston Range to the east and the Whitefish Range to the west.
Read the entire article . . .
Mud season: bears and snowplows
It looks like mud season — er, uh… Spring — is on its way.
According to an article in the Flathead Beacon, “Grizzly and black bears are emerging from their dens in Glacier National Park.” If they are up and foraging for food in the park, we’ll likely be seeing them on the North Fork, too.
Glacier National Park has started its spring plowing activities. The Daily Inter Lake has extensive details on scheduling and restrictions. The Park Service also posted a press release.
North Fork Road paving not on county wish list
OK, it looks like the Daily Mistake Inter Lake was in error the other day when they listed “a $4.1 million rebuild of the North Fork Road, with paving to the Camas entrance of Glacier National Park” as being on the Flathead County wish list for federal stimulus funds. According to a brief note from Jack Potter, who is Chief of the Division of Science and Resources Management for Glacier National Park, the money would be used for such things as “the washout on the Camas hill and the replacement of the Akokala Creek Bridge.” So, these funds are being requested to make repairs affecting the perpetually disheveled inside North Fork Road on the park side of the river.
Glacier Park’s uncertain future
This week’s Hungry Horse News has a pretty good overview of the threats faced by Glacier National Park over the next few decades . . .
In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson signed the “Organic Act” which created the National Park Service. In that bill, it said the Service has a purpose “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
In Glacier National Park, that mantra is becoming harder and harder to accomplish, admits Jack Potter, as the Park is besieged by both internal and external threats, most of which are not of its own making.
Read the entire article . . .
Canadian Flathead left out of natural-gas deal
From the Saturday, December 6, 2008 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
BP Canada on Friday received natural-gas rights for a potential energy project in a segment of British Columbia watched closely by environmental activists in both the province and in Montana.
British Columbia granted the rights to BP for its proposed Mist Mountain coal-bed methane project in the province’s southeast, after the Flathead River Basin was removed from the project area. In the debate about possible environmental effects from Mist Mountain coal-bed methane work, the border-spanning Flathead had been particularly prominent, with activists in Montana raising the specter of harm traveling downstream.
Even with the Flathead removed, the prospect of the coal-bed methane project in combination with other current and proposed industrial activity in southeastern British Columbia is alarming, said Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association in Whitefish near Glacier National Park, which extends to the British Columbia border.
Read the entire article . . .