A Forever Wild Glacier National Park
Photo by Whitney Snow
One glimpse of Glacier National Park’s soaring peaks and glacial carved valleys makes it easy to understand why approximately 3 million people now visit the Park annually. This breathtaking landscape supports an abundance of otherwise rare species and boasts a rich Indigenous heritage. Glacier Two Medicine Alliance works to preserve the park’s natural and cultural resources amidst rising visitor use and climate change.
Featured Projects
Park Visitation
While public enjoyment is one of the twin pillars of the Park’s mission, the sheer number of visitors creates management challenges and strains on resources both within the Park and on adjoining lands. We’re working to ensure Park managers are adequately balancing new growth in visitation alongside the preservation of natural, historical, and cultural resources. As the entire ecosystem experiences more visitation and permanent residents, we advocate for greater coordination in recreation management between the Park and surrounding tribal, federal, and state managed lands.
Photo credit: Glacier NPS
Protecting Natural Sounds
Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance has partnered with the Quiet! Glacier Coalition, to protect the Park’s remarkable and increasingly rare natural soundscape. Towards this goal, Glacier National Park and the Federal Aviation Administration have agreed to phase out noisy commercial air tours over the Park by 2029. We will monitor the implementation of this new Air Tour Management Plan as well as continue other work to limit sources of human created noise that erode the Park’s outstanding natural soundscape that so many people come to enjoy and that animals need to survive.
Photo credit: Glacier NPS
Keeping Glacier’s Wilderness Wild
Glacier is a wilderness lover's dream, with hundreds of miles of trails through mountainous backcountry free of roads where natural processes dominate the landscape. In recognition of these characteristics, more than 90% of the entire park has been recommended for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. We work to protect the wilderness character of Glacier’s recommended wilderness areas until Congress officially designates these areas as Wilderness, our nation’s most powerful and enduring landscape protection policy.
Photo credit: Brandy Burke, Glacier NPS
Honoring Glacier’s Indigenous Heritage
Long before these lands became Glacier National Park in 1910, this land was the traditional territory of Kootenai, Salish, Blackfeet and other Indigenous peoples. For far too long, Tribal Nations with historic ties or treaty rights to the Park have been mostly overlooked in the telling of the Park’s history and sidelined in the Park’s management. Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance supports efforts to better honor tribes’ knowledge and unique cultural relationships with these lands by fostering closer cooperation between tribal governments and the National Park Service in the management and interpretation of Glacier lands and resources.
Photo credit: Brandy Burke, Glacier NPS
Badger Bulletin
Latest News Related to Glacier National Park
GTMA to host talk on wildlife crossings
Journalist Ben Goldfarb, author of the book Crossings, will speak on Wednesday, June 26th at the Whitefish Community Center Crossing Highway 2 south of Glacier National Park can be a […]
Victory for a Quiet Glacier
Glacier National Park Releases New Air Tour Management Plan Will phase out commercial air tours East Glacier, MT – In late September, we scored a big victory for natural sounds […]
Help Improve the Railroad’s Grizzly Bear Plan
Prevent the Delisting of Grizzly Bears Last month, after years of wrangling and delay, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad finally submitted a formal Habitat Conservation Plan to the U.S. […]