Page 10 - Flathead Beacon // 2.12.14

10 | FEBRUARY 12, 2014 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM

A New Glacier Partnership

Just
Sayin’.

Recent appointments

“I can’t wait for to Glacier National Park

many more years leadership look toward a
ahead!”
bright future

U.S. Freestyle skier and
Whiteish native Maggie By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
Voisin after injuring her
right leg on Feb. 7 ending WHITEFISH — At Glacier National
her run at the Winter Park, a new leadership team has emerged
Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
(STORY, BACK PAGE)
and pledged to forge ahead in the years to
come with climate change, infrastructure
and philanthropy topping the list of pri-
“I feel awful that orities.
The leadership trio addressed Flat-
this happened head Valley residents at a Whiteish
and I’ve tried to Chamber of Commerce luncheon last
igure out how to week. They were Glacier Park Superinten-

go back in time and dent Jef Mow, whose previous post was as
ix it, but I can’t. superintendent of Kenai Fjords National
I can only move Park in Alaska; Xanterra Parks and Re-
sorts General Manager Marc Ducharme,
forward.”
whose company was awarded a 16-year Marc Ducharme, general manager for Xanterra’s Glacier operation, speaks to a group during a Whiteish
Lincoln County Clerk and contract to operate concessions that for 32 Chamber of Commerce lunch on Feb. 6. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
Recorder Tammy Lauer years had been managed by Glacier Park,
speaking at a packed
public meeting in Libby Inc., where Ducharme previously worked; change),” he said. “It’s really in our face. “We’re calling it the Taj Mahal,” he
about a mistake her oice and Mark Preiss, who last year was named And we need to be talking about how to said of the new administrative facility.
made that over taxed chief executive oicer of the Glacier Na- plan for it.”
The company will likely convert the
citizens by $2.1 million.
tional Park Conservancy.
Mow said he was grateful that park ad- former Pamida store into the oices, but
A 25-year veteran of the National ministration wouldn’t have to chafe under he has not yet “pulled the trigger.”
(STORY, PAGE 5)
Park Service, Mow said his irst experi- the constraints of sequestration this year, An additional 600 seasonal stafers
ence at Glacier Park was in 1988, when the but added that budget woes will remain an will come on board, including some 80 to
Red Bench Fire burned more than 37,000 ongoing concern to the agency.
100 international workers from Europe
“Angela will be
a strong partner acres inside and outside the park near Po- Other changes on the horizon include and Asia.
in making sure lebridge. He was working as a seasonal transferring visitor services currently Preiss said the Glacier National Park
ranger at Glacier Bay National Park and housed in a small building at Apgar to the Conservancy, the park’s lone philanthrop-
our schools and Preserve in Alaska, and was called down more spacious Apgar transit center. The ic partner, came about from a merger be-
colleges are giving to help suppress the ire.
Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor study tween the Glacier National Park Fund and
our students the “Twenty-ive years ago, the last thing will also be released for public comment Glacier Park Associates at the beginning of
I expected was to get sent down to Glacier next fall.
last year. He said the productivity of that
tools they need National Park to work on the Red Bench With Xanterra’s new contract, the con- merger is already evident.
to build an even
brighter future for ire, but they were drawing resources from cessions giant has taken over operation Last year, the conservancy raised
everywhere,” Mow said.
and maintenance of the park’s iconic leet $500,000 in support of the park, and pro-
our state.”
Today, rising temperatures and of Red Buses, as well as its ive hotels and jected raising $800,000 this year.
shrinking budgets are at the top of the Park lodges, and its food, beverage and retail “That’s not small change,” he said.
Gov. Steve Bullock on his Service’s challenges, and Glacier is no ex- outlets throughout the park.
He echoed Mow in his commitment
decision to pick Board ception. Mow said he wanted to position The Red Buses, which for years were to promoting not only discussion but also
of Regents Chair Angela Glacier at the forefront of eforts to edu- stored in East Glacier, will be maintained on-the-ground action to deal with climate
McLean as Montana’s 31st
lieutenant governor.
cate visitors and the public about the perils and housed in a facility in Columbia Falls. change.
that a warming world presents to Glacier’s The company has hired 35 full-time em- “If we’re going to talk about the next
iconic species and pristine ecosystem.
ployees, but will add another 30 workers generation of stewards, we need to talk
“So many of us superintendents in when the Columbia Falls administrative about climate change,” he said.
Alaska really cannot ignore (climate
facility opens.
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