Park plans for fish, cabins and fundraising merger

Glacier National Park officials announced a number of future changes at a community meeting last week in Columbia Falls that ranged from the Sun Road to entrance passes. Three others included:

• Glacier Park is expected to begin work soon on a fisheries management plan. The plan will look at ways to preserve the Park’s native fisheries and create a long-term strategy for managing its waters.

• The Lake McDonald Cabin Management Plan will begin work in earnest this year. The Park intended to conduct full assessments of properties it owns along the lake, but it was taking too long. In the interim, some cabins were beginning to fall apart.

The Park will now complete “quick condition” assessments, Cartwright said, which should be done within the year. When completed, the plan will identify which properties to preserve, which will be torn down and which would be candidates for leasing to private parties.

• Cartwright said the Glacier National Park Fund and the Glacier Natural History Association are working on a merger. The Glacier Institute and Glacier Park Associates would remain their own separate entities.

GNPF is the main fundraiser for Glacier Park and raised about $1 million for Park projects in 2011. GNHA runs the book stores in Glacier Park and raises about $100,000 a year for educational and interpretative programs in the Park.