Facebook founder visits Glacier, Blackfeet reservation

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg toured Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana over the weekend as part of his personal challenge to visit every state this year.

Zuckerberg took to Facebook to describe to his followers the conditions he witnessed in Montana, from climate change and its impact on Glacier National Park to government happenings and issues on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

In Browning he met with tribal officials and noted the poverty and substance abuse on the reservation. He posted about the need for better health care and for a government with checks and balances — a type of government voters on the reservation recently rejected.

“The reservation is a microcosm of how the pillars of a fair government, strong economy, and healthy community are all connected,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg noted the tribe is building its buffalo herd and recently approved a compact that quantifies its water rights.

In a Facebook post created on Saturday, Zuckerberg talked about the beauty he experienced while riding a red jammer bus through Glacier National Park. He also visited the “bark ranger” Gracie, a border collie who helps herd wildlife away from people at popular areas, such as Logan Pass.

In the post, he also drew focus to the park’s shrinking number of glaciers.

“The impact of climate change is very clear at Glacier,” he said. “In the last hundred years, the average global temperature has risen 1.5 degrees. But in the high elevations of Montana where Glacier is the temperature is warming at [three times] the global average — enough to melt glaciers.”

Management Assistant Lauren Alley with Glacier National Park said in an email Monday that during his visit Zuckerberg talked with park staff about wildlife management, visitor education with their bark ranger Gracie, climate-change effects, wilderness and its increasing visitation.

“Certainly, many of our visitors including those more well-known ask about glacier melt and climate change,” Alley wrote.

According to park records, an estimated 150 glaciers existed within the present boundaries of the park in the 1850s. Due to a rapidly warming climate, 25 glaciers remain — and the largest have lost roughly 75 percent of their size since 1850.

Alley said park rangers share information about climate-change effects in Glacier in several ways. One is a ranger program at Logan Pass called “Goodbye to the Glaciers.”

“Visitors can learn about disappearing glaciers and the impact their loss will have on the park and beyond,” she said.

Alley said other programs on wildlife or wildfire also have educational climate-change components.

As of Monday afternoon, Zuckerberg’s post had more than 280,000 reactions from Facebook users and nearly 6,000 shares.

His post about the trip to Browning garnered 80,000 reactions and nearly 3,000 comments.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.