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Park Advocates Say Sun Road Plan Needs Clearer Solutions

Range of alternatives to control congestion in Glacier falls short, some say

By Tristan Scott
Going-to-the-Sun Road shuttle at Logan Pass on July 3, 2015. Greg Lindstrom | Flathead Beacon

As Glacier National Park considers the most effective measures to control and mitigate congestion on its famed Going-to-the-Sun Road and reduce pressures on its pristine resources, some park advocates and former managers are encouraging administrators to explore more specific benchmarks to steer change.

In comments to the Park Service on its preliminary Sun Road Corridor management plan released earlier this spring, ideas that were bandied about include charging tolls to drive the iconic highway, initiating a carrying capacity at some facilities, and requiring a timed entry and reservation system.

And while the five alternatives the Park recently put out for public comment include a range of options, many do not strike an assertive enough tenor, according to former Glacier Superintendent Chas Cartwright.

Glacier Park has reached a tipping point that means management actions must be bold, he said, and as the uptick in visitation continues, time is of the essence.

“The time to act is now. Otherwise, people are going to look back 15 or 20 years from now and we might be closing in on 3 million visitors annually. It’s going to be chaotic,” Cartwright said.

The National Parks Conservation Association also found many of the alternatives too faint-hearted. In the nonprofit advocacy group’s comments, the NPCA’s Sarah Lundstrum encouraged park managers to consider affecting change with more aggressive alternatives.

“We found that all the preliminary alternatives were overly timid in their approach to dealing with these problems, assuming that the goal is to substantively address these issues in ways that actually change the visitor experience and the impacts to resources,” wrote Lundstrum, who works out of the Glacier field office.

Jack Potter retired from Glacier National Park after a 41-year career with the park that included drafting the Glacier general management plan in 1999, a document that laid out a blueprint for the park’s future.

The plan was as challenging as it was rewarding, and Potter said the Sun Road Corridor management plan is just as critical of a document, but is too tenuous in its proposed changes.

“This wasn’t really a plan,” Potter said of the proposed management actions. “It’s a lot of loose ideas but they don’t solve the specific problems.”

Potter said spreading out the crowds to other regions of Glacier, as some of the alternatives suggest, would not have the desired effect, instead adding the pressures of increased visitation to quieter corners of the park.

He said the park’s adaptive management strategy is the most palatable, allowing for scenario-based planning, but that it falls short of identifying specific scenarios that would trigger real action.

“This is the most interesting alternative, and probably holds the most promise, but I worry that it could promote just a reactionary, chaotic response – the anti-plan,” Potter wrote in his comments.

All told the Park received 321 comments on the preliminary alternatives before the comment period closed last month. The next public meeting is July 19 at Apgar Transit Center.

The preliminary alternatives are described at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=61&projectID=47660&documentID=65779.