BNSF Railway donates $50,000 for Park projects

BNSF Railway gave a big fundraising boost to the new Glacier National Park Conservancy last week, donating $50,000 to help fund several projects inside Glacier National Park.

“BNSF really identifies itself with Glacier,” BNSF vice president Zak Andersen said last week. “We were here (as Great Northern Railroad) at the founding of the Park. It’s important to keep that connection.”

Andersen, who is also is president of the BNSF Foundation, was in Columbia Falls.

The grant will help fund a project to inventory golden eagle, black swifts and northern hawk owls, and bring geographical information system modules to high school classrooms through the Internet.

GIS programs combine maps and geographical information. A GIS map of Glacier Park could include topography with data on vegetation, water or other resources.

The BNSF grant will also help fund research on golden eagles, which Park biologists believe are declining across the West and in Glacier Park. The Park in the past supported an estimated 15 to 20 golden eagle nesting territories. Some estimates place this number much higher at 35 to 40 nests.

In 2011 and 2012, only three nesting territories were classified as successful, with only five known to show some activity. Observers conducting golden eagle migration counts outside the Park have recorded a 50 percent decline in numbers over the past 10 years.

Wind energy development and lead poisoning are suggested reasons for the decline. Eagles feed on carrion, which might contain lead bullets or lead shot. In spring 2012, a sub-adult golden eagle carcass on Lower McDonald Creek was found to have died of lead poisoning.

The black swift is a species of concern because it only nests behind waterfalls that last through the summer, but higher temperatures in recent years have caused many waterfalls in the West to dry up as early as June.

Black swifts have a low reproductive rate, raising only one chick per year. Monitoring efforts outside of Montana show black swift populations declining by six percent per year.

Currently, only 124 known black swift nesting sites have been identified in the world — two of them in Montana. Glacier Park has numerous waterfalls that black swifts could nest behind, but it will take an effort to discover if the birds are there.

The Park will also continue research on northern hawk owls. This unique owl hunts during the day and seems to be fire dependent — it colonizes forests after fires. Glacier Park lies at the southern end of its range.

The BNSF grant will also go toward putting a new outhouse on the Hidden Lake Trail and upgrading the Park’s large format printer.

The Conservancy is the official non-profit fundraising arm of the Park. It was formed late last year after the Glacier National Park Fund and the Glacier Association merged.