In a disorienting turn of events last week, Glacier National Park officials unveiled changes to the park’s aquatic invasive species emergency response plan by loosening boating restrictions on Lake McDonald to allow limited motorized-boat use, an unexpected move prompted by pressure from Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.
One day later, park officials reversed course, calling some of the changes “premature” and stating they were “not directed by the Department of the Interior,” despite an internal memo obtained by the Beacon, in which park officials express frustration at having to rush changes to the aquatic invasive species (AIS) plan online at the height of the busy summer season, purportedly at Zinke’s behest.
So what’s changed?
Nothing and everything.
In a July 10 press release, titled “Park Begins Third Phase of Emergency AIS Response,” Glacier officials announced they had “begun allowing private landowners living within the park boundary around Lake McDonald whose motorboats are only launched on Lake McDonald to begin accessing the lake. These boats have exceeded the thirty day quarantine requirement, and in addition, have undergone an aquatic invasive species boat inspection by NPS staff.”
The release continues: “In the next two weeks the park will release quarantine and inspection procedures for people living outside the park who would like to launch their boat on Lake McDonald.”
In a confusing July 11 “correction” ostensibly walking back the announcement, park officials go on to state that changes to the AIS emergency response would still be implemented in the coming weeks, according to a strategy identical to the one outlined in the park’s initial announcement.
So why the correction?
According to a spokesperson for the Interior Department, Heather Swift, “the Secretary’s directive was only for the internal landowners whose boats never leave the park.”
Swift said Zinke’s mandate did not include inspection procedures for boaters living outside the park, and insisted the park’s “retraction” meant it was not fully implementing the third phase of its AIS response. However, park officials are moving forward with the public motorized boating program using the same blueprint announced July 10.
Earlier this month, Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow sent an email to various stakeholders outlining changes to the park’s AIS response, which he described as being influenced by the Interior Secretary.
“We have been working in concert with our leadership in Washington throughout this complex effort, and have received guidance that it is important for us to move forward with these next phases of our aquatic invasive species prevention program that we have been exploring for the past several months,” Mow wrote.
According to a memo circulated among National Park Service employees late last month, park administrators were considering the possibility of a limited public motorized-access program in the future, but hadn’t planned on rolling it out this summer.
That changed when Zinke issued a directive to the park’s top officials, including Mow, to “find ways for the taxpayers to be able to use their motorboats in our park waters” this summer, according to the memo’s author, a National Park Service employee.
Recipients of the memo included employees charged with managing the park’s Aquatic Invasive Species Inspection Program, and the author expressed dismay at having to cobble together a last-minute inspection program.
“I realize we don’t even have all the kinks worked out of our non-motorized ops. yet and now we are looking at a whole new program, and I understand, sympathize, and share your frustration at yet another responsibility being added to your already very full plates,” the park official states in the memo. “If I had been given a choice, or if Jeff Mow or [Chief Ranger] Paul Austin were given a choice, we would have opted for starting this next year, but that is not the reality. We’re going to do the best we can with this and if it is any consolation, this could not have been placed in more capable hands than yours.”
The park’s July 11 pivot sparked confusion from members of the public about whether anything substantive had changed.
Montana is implementing sweeping new policies to fight against aquatic invasive species after the 2017 Montana Legislature increased funding for the state’s program to $6 million annually.
Last November, Glacier Park officials immediately closed park waters to all watercraft following the discovery of destructive mussel larvae in Tiber and Canyon Ferry reservoirs east of the Continental Divide, just 100 air miles from the boundary of Glacier Park and a headwaters of the Columbia River Basin. It was the first such detection of the invasive species in the state’s history.
Former park officials said receiving direct pressure from an Interior Secretary on management decisions is unusual.
Jack Potter, whose 41-year career at Glacier National Park culminated in his role as chief of the Science and Resources Management Division before he retired in 2011, stressed the need to advocate for environmental stewardship without losing sight of the park’s function as a public place to recreate, thus fulfilling the dual mission spelled out in the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 — “to preserve and protect while providing for the common enjoyment.”
Still, he said, it’s a balance best struck by the individual park managers who understand its functions most intimately.
“It’s very strange to have an individual park micromanaged by the Interior Secretary like that,” Potter said. “Although in the current political climate and with the current administration, I would have to say it’s not surprising to see a decision that weighs in on the side of access and property rights versus scientific caution. I don’t fault the park for trying to be ultra cautious, or not being able to gauge the political winds. I think they were right in being overly cautious.”
Chas Cartwright, a former park superintendent at Glacier, said it’s unorthodox for an Interior Secretary to issue direct commands to park managers.
“He’s not the one analyzing the consequences of this issue,” Cartwright said. “I think Ryan Zinke was upset that he got a little mud on him and now people are under all sorts of crazy assumptions.”