Park official: Shuttle is overloading alpine areas

Road management plan has $1.3 million price tag

Glacier National Park is expected to begin work on a management plan for the Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor in the coming years.

The management plan will see some work this summer. The Park has secured $150,000 to have the University of Montana begin visitor surveys of people who use the highway this summer, Park deputy superintendent Kym Hall said.

The complete management plan will cost about $1.3 million and will examine a host of issues, from traffic and wildlife impacts to wear and tear on trails. It will also examine the economic impacts of any future course of action.

The Park has no preconceived ideas, Hall said.

“We don’t know where we’re headed with this,” Hall said at a community meeting in Columbia Falls last week, noting there will be plenty of public participation opportunities in the plan.

“We need your help,” she told the crowd.

The Park’s shuttle system has become a concern. A main concerns is that the system brings far more visitors to trailheads and Logan Pass than they were designed to accommodate. That’s resulted in impacts to mountain meadows and popular trails along the route as well as overcrowding. The trail to Avalanche Lake, for example, saw about 120,000 people last year, the Park estimates.

The shuttle system also has a limited budget — $7.50 of every entrance pass fee goes toward the system, adding up to about $800,000. That budget is squeezed tight as fuel costs have risen. The only reason the shuttle program didn’t run out of money last summer was because the Sun Road didn’t open until mid-July, superintendent Chas Cartwright said.

Some members of the public, however, would like to see the shuttle expanded, even if it means charging for service.

Sally Thompson, a West Glacier businesswoman, said she’d like to see the shuttle make runs outside the Park so visitors wouldn’t have to get a ride into Glacier to catch the shuttle.

Businesswoman Marion Foley would like to see the Park do shuttle runs in the spring and fall. There have also been requests for shuttle service to other areas of the Park, such as Many Glacier and Two Medicine, so hikers could complete loop routes in the Park.

The road management plan will try to tackle all of those issues and create a framework and direction for future use of the Sun Road. Hall said the work would hopefully begin in earnest in 2013 with a completion in 2015.