Heavens Peak Lookout project will start this summer

Glacier National Park will go ahead with stabilization of the Heavens Peak Lookout this summer. The Park recently released a finding of no significant impact to the project.

Volunteers and crew workers will make a spike camp for more than 40 days in an area with no trails below the lookout as they complete work on the structure, which is perched on the north flank of Heavens Peak.

Park officials admit that most comments it received were against the restoration, citing wilderness concerns and helicopter flights needed to haul in equipment to complete the repairs. One environmental group, Wilderness Watch, opposed the plan, and two former Park biologists, Riley McClelland and Steve Gniadek, also raised concerns about the Park's interpretation of wilderness.

"We understand the concerns of Wilderness Watch and others," Park superintendent Chas Cartwright said, "but we disagree with their position and interpretation of the Wilderness Act. The Heavens Peak Lookout is not only an integral part of Glacier's cultural legacy but also contributes to the unique character of the Park's wilderness landscape."

Park officials say no more than 12 helicopter flights will be used to haul supplies to the site, and pains will be taken to reduce noise while construction occurs. Generators, for example, will be housed inside the lookout and are "ultra quiet."

Some proponents of the plan also wanted the Park to rebuild the trail to the lookout, which was abandoned years ago. That idea was rejected because of possible impacts to grizzly bears.

Currently, there is no trail to the lookout and visitors must either bushwhack up from Packer's Roost or spend a day hiking into Camas Lake and then climb up the peak. Both routes are not for the faint of heart.

The lookout was built in 1945 by conscientious objectors in the Civilian Public Service and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The lookout is one of the last remaining structures in the U.S. built by the CPS. Funding for the stabilization was provided by a donation from the Glacier National Park Fund.