In Glacier, super predicts staff cuts

When Chas Cartwright looks at Glacier National Park’s future his prediction includes operating with less federal funding and his hope to achieve a formal wilderness designation for the Park.

“In the past all we’ve had to do is explain why we need money and we’ve gotten it,” he said. “That system is going away.”

As superintendent of the park, Cartwright predicts changes in federal funding that will likely impact the way the Park is managed. He also said he’d like to see the Park be designated as wilderness.

Last week he talked about the two issues at a meeting of the Glacier Country Pachyderm Club in Kalispell. He said he’s been meeting with various groups to talk with the Park’s neighbors.

On the subject of funding, Cartwright said right now about 91 percent of a parks’ funding comes from the federal government and 9 percent comes from private donations and the like.

“There will be a dynamic change in that in the next five to 10 years,” he said. “It will be more like 80 (percent federal funding) and 20 (percent private funding).”

He said Glacier is lucky in that it has friends and groups that help provide funding.

The Glacier National Park Fund, a non-profit that raises money for various park projects, expects to award more than $200,000 in grants this year.

“Not all parks have that. We plan on growing that — it’s a better way of doing business,” Cartwright said. “The more people you bring into the equation to manage the better off you’ll be.”

Cartwright also predicted staff cuts over the next few years as the Park is forced to absorb about a 3 percent cut in its budget each year.

Currently Glacier employs about 150 permanent and 450 seasonal employees.

In five years, Cartwright said, he expects the Park to have 20 fewer permanent employees and 100 fewer seasonal employees.

ONE OF THE most costly projects in the Park is the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Predictions are that a $50 million appropriation for reconstruction will run out next summer. Cost estimates for the road’s rehabilitation have continued to rise.

Cartwright said the Park and the Federal Highway Administration is currently revamping construction plans to make money-saving cuts.

“I’m confident we’ll get money to continue work on the road,” he said, but work is ongoing to look at ways to keep costs down.

Cartwright expects to employ a new planning strategy for operations based on available funding.

“We’re getting more sophisticated about our buying power as costs are going up,” he said. “We need to get more strategic. We have to match what we can afford with the core of what we need to accomplish. We need to get more efficient and maintain the existing service level.”

ON DESIGNATING Glacier Park as wilderness, Cartwright said he’d like to work toward earning the designation for the Park’s 100-year anniversary.

“There’s lots of opportunity to celebrate to do things beyond ceremonies that at the end of the day we’ll still have something to show for it,” he said.

Glacier will turn 100 in 2010. Although, Cartwright noted that such a designation couldn’t likely be achieved in such a short amount of time.

Cartwright said he’s spoken with Montana’s congressional delegation about the designation. Only

Congress can designate wilderness, but it must also be signed by the president.

He acknowledges that wilderness designations can often be controversial, but that he’s heard from many folks that Glacier Park is right for it.

“The reason many come to Glacier is for the wilderness experience it offers,” he said.

One of his goals in meeting with folks is to hear how they feel about the designation.

Some attendees of the Pachyderm Club meeting seemed skeptical of naming Glacier as wilderness.

“I promise it will not change the use of the Park,” Cartwright said.

Much of Glacier is managed as de facto wilderness now. The designation would moreso lay out what uses are and aren’t allowed there.

“It is wilderness. That’s what it is. It’s one of the last best pieces of wilderness in the continental United States,” he said.

Cartwright said the official designation would protect the area in perpetuity. Specifically making it off limits to oil and gas exploration and development.

He also noted that the designation could help the Park argue against coal development to the north in Canada.

“It would show Canada we value it and we’ve taken the steps to protect it forever,” he said.