Park ranger wins conservation award
In 1987, a young Brad Blickhan came to Glacier National Park to drive a Red Bus. His uncle had drove the historic tour buses and said it was a good summer job for a college student. Like many others before him, Blickhan fell in love with the place, and never left.
Blickhan was a junior at Bradley College in Peoria, Ill. at the time studying business, but he quickly grew to love the mountains and landscape. His father kept asking him when he was going to apply for jobs, but Blickhan’s compass always turned toward Glacier Park, taking odd jobs here and there. One summer they hiked together up to Old Man Lake.
“I think he realized then that I wasn’t going to pursue a career in business,” Blickhan said last week.
In 1992, Blickhan tried to land a job on the Park’s trail crew. It was tight budget year with no openings so he took a post at the Park’s dispatch center, which got him involved with ranger staff. A few years later, he was a seasonal ranger at Two Medicine. By the early 2000s, he became the permanent Lake McDonald area ranger.
For his conservation efforts over the course of his 20-year Park Service career, the affable Blickhan was awarded the Jack Potter Award by Headwaters Montana, a local conservation group. Potter was the chief of science and management for many years at Glacier Park.
Twenty-five of Blickhan’s peers nominated him for the award, which recognizes a local individual in the conservation arena each year. He was given a hand-blown glass sculpture trophy of a water ouzel donated by Bigfork glass artist Lee Proctor and a cash award of $200.
Over the years, Blickhan played a key role in conservation efforts in Glacier Park, including advocating for protection of wintering ungulates from “antler hunters.”
“Backed by a number of scientific research studies, Brad presented a fact-based case to the superintendent supporting a regulation protecting key wildlife wintering areas from human entry,” the nominating letter says. “Now included in the Park’s compendium, this regulation helps Park rangers to better manage human presence through the implementation of temporary closures and/or trail-use restrictions in and around critical winter-range habitat.”
The nominating letter also cited his proactive approach to dealing with human waste, fire rings, litter and social trails to and from illegal toilet areas that were degrading the quality of North Fork of the Flathead.
Blickhan wrote and received a $4,000 grant for a public outreach program that included the purchase of WAG bags, bear-resistant coolers and fire pans that Park visitors can use free of charge.
Blickhan also retraced much of former ranger Norton Pearl’s trek around Glacier Park in winter — skiing along the Park’s east side into Waterton Lake National Park and then over Brown’s Pass into the North Fork. Blickhan completed the journey in 2003 and again in 2013 for the 100th anniversary of Pearl’s trip. Blickhan’s trip came at no expense to the Park — he was on furlough at the time.
Blickhan and his wife Ellen have a son Dale, 9. Blickhan said he was honored to be recognized and said it’s all about a love for the landscape.
“What better job than being on the ground, helping to protect it,” he said.