Glacier National Park: Participate in the destination stewardship process

We in Western Montana are lucky enough to have Glacier National Park in our backyard. As residents, we have had the privilege over the years to visit the park for a spontaneous weekend, enjoying the famously beautiful Going-to-the-Sun Road on a whim, or hiking in the previously lesser-known area of the North Fork.

Over the past two decades visitation to Glacier National Park has doubled, and in 2023 was close the three million people.

In 2021, our colleagues at Glacier National Park began a series of pilot programs to address the congestion issues at the park caused by such an increase of visitors. The programs were developed with input from the surrounding communities and businesses as well as from the examples of other national parks experiencing similar issues.

Each year the park learned what worked and, sometimes more importantly, what didn’t work, and adjusted accordingly. The adjustments were based on feedback from visitors and surrounding communities, as well as hard data – were the pilot programs actually doing what they set out to accomplish and lessening congestion during peak visitation months and hours.

Recently, the park announced a new pilot program for 2025. The new program is based on knowledge garnered from the past four seasons, and includes a timed entry approach, one that has proven effective in other national parks. Will this work for Glacier National Park? Maybe. It will be assessed at the end of peak season 2025. But in the meantime, folks have the chance to give input.

Glacier National Park recently announced a series of meetings in Missoula, Polson (4-6 p.m. Dec. 3, KwaTaqNuk Resort), Columbia Falls and Browning as well as virtually, with the purpose of gathering input on the future of how visitors access and travel around the park. This is our opportunity to participate in this process.

According to the press release, ‘the park is sharing initial ideas for addressing traffic congestion, visitor movement challenges, transportation, and related issues that affect visitor experience and park resources that will be used to inform a long-term plan.’ 

We will then be able to provide public comment through an online platform through Jan. 6, 2025. If you have an opinion about visitor access, Glacier National Park officials want to hear it. And we, at Western Montana’s Glacier Country, urge you to participate. 

Western Montana’s Glacier Country is the region's officially recognized destination organization, focusing on destination stewardship, which ensures we base what we do on what our communities need and want. In 2021 we conducted 16 townhall meetings throughout our eight counties, seeking input on visitation and what our residents did and didn’t want to see in their area – sometimes it’s a fine balance between the economic driver of tourism and the quality of life in Montana we all value so much, and we wanted to hear what you thought. We did it again in 2023.

It was a fantastic exercise and the information we gathered was invaluable to our future planning, and to the destination stewardship efforts embedded in our mission. Just like it will be invaluable to Glacier National Park and the destination stewardship that is foundational to theirs.   

We know people are passionate about Glacier National Park. We hear it every day. So take that passion and participate in the process—the future of Glacier National Park depends on it. The meeting schedule appears at   planning.nps.gov/MeetingNotices.cfm?projectID=126808.

Racene Friede is the president and CEO of Western Montana’s Glacier Country.