Park looks at climate change, AIS impact on waterways

Glacier National Park announced last week it has begun drafting a comprehensive plan to address the impacts of climate change and aquatic invasive species throughout the park’s vast network of lakes, ponds, wetlands and streams.

The park is requesting public comments and suggestions by May 11 for the Fish and Aquatics Plan, which it hopes to finalize by April 2017.

“We’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now,” Chris Downs, Glacier’s fisheries manager, said Friday. “This is a desire to take a bigger-picture view of what the threats are, what the resources are that we have to put toward those threats and how to prioritize and communicate those priorities.”

He added it will be modeled after Yellowstone National Park’s native fish conservation plan, but with an additional focus on climate change impacts.

The scoping document identifies a framework for the park’s proposed action and two alternatives, along a “no action” alternative, under which no new plan would be established.

Many of the proposed management actions focus on protecting Glacier’s 17 native fish species from the pressures of non-native fish, which the park stocked in its waters for decades before ending the practice in the 1970s.

Park officials will hold a public scoping meeting May 5 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the Flathead Forest Supervisor’s Office, located at 650 Wolfpack Way in Kalispell.

A scoping meeting will also be held May 4 in Great Falls.

After the public scoping period ends May 11, the park will use the comments received to develop a draft environmental impact statement for the alternatives by next spring.

Following another public comment period, the park will make any changes it deems necessary to the plan, with the final version expected in April 2018.

Comments can be mailed to: Superintendent, Glacier National Park, Attn: Fish and Aquatics Plan/EIS, P.O. Box 128, West Glacier, Montana 59936.

To submit public comments online or view the scoping document, visit parkplanning.nps.gov/FishAquaticsPlanEIS.