2023 Projects

Funding Needed: $44,300

This innovative and immersive program is designed to introduce a diversity of individuals from backgrounds historically underrepresented in the National Parks to career opportunities with the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS Academy maximizes career opportunities with NPS through training and hands-on experiences. During recent years Glacier has increased efforts to diversify its workforce with the goal to better represent the American people. This program pushes that notion further, bringing in diverse youth to teach them about the inner workings of the National Park Service. 

 “[…]I’m excited to learn how to become a great steward of Glacier National Park! ACE (American Conservation Experience) NPS Academy has given me such a great space to find out where I fit best, and I know this summer will have many opportunities for that,” said Interpretation and Education Member, Madeline Morris.

Funding for this program is influential, proving to future generations that Glacier National Park is a place of belonging for staff and visitors alike — no matter one’s background.

Photo: National Park Service interns / Connar L’Ecuyer

Funding Needed: $42,000

To stand at the foot of Ninaiistako (Chief Mountain) at sunrise and hear the story of the mountain’s naming from a Blackfeet member is to be transported into another world. 

For thousands of years before this land was known as Glacier National Park, the people and the land were one. There could not be one without the other, and tribal place names describe the connection of the indigenous people to the land since time immemorial. These traditional place names were all but erased and renamed by explorers and others who came after. Work will begin in 2023 to create a collaboration between Glacier National Park, Department of the Interior, Blackfeet Nation, and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation to begin the work of returning too long silenced voices to signage and place names in the park.

In 2021, the Board of Directors of the Glacier Conservancy established its first ever Tribal Relations Working Group, Co-Chaired by Board members Cheryle “Cookie” Cobell Zwang, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, and Germaine White, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Working with leaders from the park, the group quickly created a set of priorities, many of which are included in this Project Funding Needs Guide. With donor support, we’ll help broaden the reach of the impactful Native America Speaks program, expand the Piikuni Land Service Crew partnership, and continue the historic Iinnii Initiative to return native iinnii (bison) back to Glacier. These are important actions that make a real difference on the landscape.

Words matter too. And that’s why this new initiative to preserve and acknowledge indigenous associations within the landscape is so important. Reversing the history of removal from the land and its story to inclusion in the land will be powerful. In discussing this issue at our board meeting held on the traditional lands of the Blackfeet in Browning, board member Richard Miles put it this way, saying, “There is a virtuous cycle involved here.” Authentic language both enriches the visitor experience and encourages exploration, leading to more discovery and deeper appreciation for a sense of place that, in turn, encourages even more exploration and discovery. 

Funding Needed: $121,835

This project focuses on strengthening and sustaining relationships with local tribal communities, Glacier’s first peoples and original stewards. Funding supports the award winning Native America Speaks program and other important aspects of the tribal engagement initiative. Learn more about the program, how the Conservancy is honoring tribes and the Blackfeet Nation’s historical relationship with Glaicer here.

Funding Needed: $77,429

The Piikuni Lands Service Corps engages Blackfeet youth and young adults in paid summer programs where participants deepen their relationship to ancestral lands while developing essential job skills. This program is a culturally engaged model guided by the Blackfeet community with intentionality around creating a structure that speaks directly to Blackfeet youth.

Funding Needed: $12,000

This partnership provides valuable hands-on fisheries training in a world-class national park while Glacier’s fisheries program receives much needed summer field season assistance in implementing fisheries, water quality, and physical science projects.

Funding Needed: $63,400

This grant targets youth to get them involved in conservation with a specific focus on native plants. These internships educate students on the importance of conservation of native species.

Funding Needed: $52,250

This program integrates formal and informal children’s programs, Apgar Nature Center activities, and junior ranger program support to create a comprehensive youth engagement program in the park.

Funding Needed: $18,136

In one year Glacier can see up to 10,000 students. This grant ensures that school groups enter the park for free and the park is able to provide ranger-led field trips, classroom visits, and distance learning programs.

Funding Needed: $11,800

This camp provides life-long skills in leadership, critical thinking, and problem solving for 12-15 year old girls. Participants work on a variety of scientific topics including archaeology and scientific investigation. 

Funding Needed: $186,942

The Glacier Conservation Corps brings youth to the park to be land stewards and contribute hours of service to assist with critical park projects including invasive weed control, trail maintenance, and citizen science data collection. 

Funding Needed: $11,444

This project partners with the Glacier Institute, Boys and Girls Clubs of Missoula County, Blackfeet Nation, Flathead Reservation, and Lake County to provide resources to bring kids into the park and provide them with opportunities to get outside, explore their creativity, and work alongside positive adult role models who are passionate about the outdoors.

Funding Needed: $45,500

Construction of 350 feet of elevated boardwalk will improve visitor safety to this popular trailhead. The boardwalk will also protect the root systems of the cedar-hemlock forest as well as native mosses and other plants.

Funding Needed: $105,000

This grant supports ongoing work to create a fully accessible loop around Swiftcurrent Lake and provide accessibility to the boat dock at Lake Josephine. In 2023, this work will focus on the section of trail from the Josephine Inlet Bridge to the boat dock and continuing toward Swiftcurrent Lake.

Funding Needed: $23,200

This project enhances the current amphitheater site with improvements including signage installation, establishing accessible walkways, and installing low-intensity lighting.

Funding Needed: $62,425

Headwaters Season Four will explore climate change in a collaborative multi-part season. In partnership with the NPS Climate Change Response Program, this season will include a series of carefully crafted interviews with thought leaders from around NPS.

Funding Needed: $93,150

Support for this project helps the park maintain a long-term commitment to preserving dark skies by funding on-site astronomy volunteers and interns, astronomy education programs, astronomy events, and the operation of Glacier’s Dusty Star Observatory.

Funding Needed: $36,000

A series of short, interactive videos will be created  for viewers to join a park ranger as they visit with researchers and resource experts in the field to get a rare  “behind the scenes” look at research being conducted in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Funding Needed: $179,000

The citizen science program will build on past successes to reach out to new and diverse groups to expand opportunities for citizen science engagement and refine tools for utilizing technology to increase the efficiency and accuracy of data collection.

Funding Needed: $4,000

This grant provides funding to allow park employees to receive valuable professional development and gain a greater understanding of the park. 

Funding Needed: $48,377

This project funds additional staff to connect the public with unique park resources preserved in the museum and archives, both in person and virtually.

Funding Needed: $22,732

This project will modernize the systems used to access the park’s historic image collections, allowing park staff and patrons of the archives and library to efficiently identify photographs that meet a wide range of search criteria, supporting ongoing efforts to provide improved access to the resources preserved in the Glacier National Park Museum and Archives.

Funding Needed: $74,420

What impact does climate change have on this tiny mammal that finds refuge in the upper elevations of Glacier National Park?

Hearing the unmistakable “eeps” of pikas while hiking along the rocky slopes of Glacier National Park is a special experience for visitors. Given its high elevations and northern latitude, Glacier is currently a refuge for this tiny charismatic mammal. As the climate warms, those “eeps” could fall silent as heat-sensitive pikas are pushed past their physical limits.

In order for the park to make informed conservation and management decisions for pikas, we need to understand where climate impacts have been the greatest, which population patches have withstood rising temperatures the best, and which dispersal corridors between patches are the most important for maintaining healthy, connected, and genetically diverse populations.

So, how are Glacier’s pikas doing? Baseline data collected more than a decade ago showed that pikas were widespread in the park, although warm daytime temperatures were already affecting their behavior by limiting the time they could be out foraging and building hay piles. Since that time, rapid climate warming has occurred. Re-surveying those same sites could provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand how Glacier’s pikas have responded to climate change. New research will provide updated data by measuring how pika population densities and distribution have changed in the park over the past decade.

In addition to re-surveying 300 pika habitat patches, funding for this project will help conduct cutting-edge genetic analyses. Through these analyses, the park can better understand how pikas are responding to climate change and create a blueprint that highlights pika connectivity ‘hotspots’ for targeted conservation and management.

Citizen scientists will have the opportunity and unique honor to participate in the “pika poop patrol” and collect scat samples for genetic analysis. DNA will be extracted and analyzed and this genetic information will help determine how connected pika sub-populations are in the park and will be combined with habitat variables to identify corridors that encourage movement and breeding. This analysis will pinpoint key corridors in the park that could help keep the pika population connected and healthy as the climate continues to warm.

Funding Needed: $104,300

Glacier’s intact and relatively undisturbed ecosystem provides critical habitat for wildlife.

This project allows Glacier to increase monitoring for chronic wasting disease (CWD) and other highly infectious wildlife diseases in and adjacent to the park in cooperation with the State of Montana and the Blackfeet tribe while developing disease response plans to guide management actions in a systematic, planned approach. In November 2020, the Montana Department of Livestock announced CWD was detected on a captive cervid farm in Flathead County. In December 2020, Glacier received notification from Blackfeet Fish and Game that a harvested deer tested positive for CWD less than 20 miles from the park. In accordance with NPS protocols, parks in proximity to areas where CWD has been detected should initiate a targeted surveillance program to monitor for deer and elk with clinical signs of the disease and submit samples for diagnostic testing from all cervids found deceased. 

Glacier has large populations of white-tailed and mule deer, elk, and moose. Because the park adjoins lands administered by the State of Montana and Blackfeet Indian Reservation, it is imperative to follow these guidelines to increase sampling efforts and develop a CWD response plan to coordinate any response. Successful management of CWD depends on early detection and elimination of infected individuals and populations. This project will also improve monitoring and response actions for Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (which can impact pika populations) and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

Funding Needed: $122,500

This project is focused on natural and cultural changes associated with the return of iinnii to the east side of Glacier and the Blackfeet Reservation. This project will provide information about the existing health status of wildlife in this area which will inform future iinnii reintroduction and other wildlife management actions. Funding will support the fieldwork and data analysis of this important study.

Funding Needed: $70,750

This study will allow Glacier, the USGS, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the University of Montana, and the Blackfeet Tribe to study elk movement and habitat use of east side grasslands to obtain baseline data prior to the return of iinnii on the landscape. This project will give all parties information about the existing health status of wildlife in this area which will inform future bison reintroduction and other wildlife management actions. 

Funding Needed: $40,000

This project supports the Blackfeet Nation’s recently established Chief Mountain Range Rider Guardian Program. Funding for this project supports tribal efforts in leveraging other partners for the development of a long-term sustainable funding strategy, while also meeting the goals of the initial “range rider” program.

Funding Needed: $26,000

Data from Glacier’s long-term Golden Eagle monitoring program shows active nests have declined about 75% from historic numbers. This grant will support systematic surveys to monitor for reproductive success in order to assess whether numbers in Glacier are stable, and if environmental or human factors may be affecting their breeding success.

Funding Needed: $18,000

In 2021, Mount Brown became an official HawkWatch International site after reaching the goal to recruit and train enough lead volunteers to sustain the program. This increasingly popular program captures critical data for raptor migrations while also serving as a unique opportunity to educate visitors about the importance of raptors, the risks they face, identification methods, and how to aid in raptor conservation. The grant will support the staffing and equipment required to sustain this program. 

Funding Needed: $21,947

Glacier faces a critical knowledge gap regarding the diversity and vulnerability of nocturnal pollinators, the fascinating creatures that are critical to the success of many rare plants and provide a major food source for grizzly bears. This project will support a multi-day BioBlitz to discover, identify, and catalog the rich variety of species that call our Dark Sky Park home. 

Funding Needed: $75,000

Capturing the flash of a Westslope cutthroat or bull trout as it works the creek bed of a crystal clear stream adds another dimension of wonder to the experience of being in Glacier Park. These native fish used to rule the waters here in Glacier country, but are now in trouble. Introduction of invasive non-native fish, the subsequent reduction of the overall population of bull and Westslope cutthroat trout, combined with the negative feedback loop of the impacts of climate change means something has to happen to keep these native fish in the waters to which they belong.

The good news is that Glacier’s own fisheries biologist Chris Downs is one of the premier experts in this area and he and his team have seen positive results in past efforts here in Glacier at Quartz Lake and Logging Lake – experience that informs this project to translocate bull and cutthroat trout into Gunsight Lake.

This project will remove invasive non-native fish from the lake and re-populate it with bull and Westslope cutthroat trout from the east side of Glacier. The park is working closely with Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife to determine if this one-year project might foster a longer term collaborative relationship. Gunsight Lake was chosen because its elevation and cold water provide a favorable environment for the successful translocation of these native fish.

We’re acclimated to looking up and out when we are in Glacier. We marvel at the rugged peaks, magnificent birds, and four legged residents. But when we look down, under the water we see another special aspect of Glacier. Here we have the clean, cold water that can support these rare native fish, and with this project we have it in our power to make sure future generations have the opportunity to startle at an unexpected flash that quickens the pulse and gives us “a moment of beauty.”

Funding Needed: $75,000

The database historically used by Glacier’s wilderness rangers to collect and store data has become outdated and is no longer functional. This grant supports a Wilderness Program Data Steward to focus on building a new database, creating electronic resource monitoring reporting forms, and coordinating internship opportunities to assist in critical wilderness data collection.

Funding Needed: $85,000

Each year the cultural resources program receives leads concerning previously unknown cultural sites. This grant will support two tribal interns and two seasonal archeological technicians to allow for timely follow up to leads, ensuring cultural resource preservation, protection, and community engagement. 

Funding Needed: $78,000

One million acres. More precisely, Glacier National Park is 1,012,837 acres in size with 927,550 of those acres – 90% of the entire park – managed as wilderness. 

Another way to think about it is that decision makers in Glacier are tasked with administering as wilderness a land mass larger than both Washington, D.C., and the  state of Rhode Island.

This game-changing project is a direct result of the development of a set of “working groups” co-chaired by leaders from the Conservancy and Glacier National Park. In this case, the Wilderness Working Group, co-chaired by Chief Ranger Paul Austin and Conservancy Executive Director Doug Mitchell, identified early on the need to re-invest in wilderness management as a way to create a path to a long term goal of ensuring the protection of Glacier’s wilderness for future generations.

A decade ago, due to budget cuts, the Wilderness Unit at Glacier was dissolved. The leadership and management responsibilities of the unit were absorbed by already fully employed District Rangers. This group has done a remarkable job given the circumstances, but too often there has been little time or resources to invest in wilderness training and park wide coordination and planning.

Fresh from the success of park directed and Conservancy supported work to complete a park wide Wilderness Character Mapping project, the Wilderness Working Group asked itself what next step would be the most important step toward returning to active and impactful wilderness management and coordination. Without hesitation, park leaders said it was time to re-establish the Wilderness Unit by investing in a Wilderness Lead position. Not only would doing so make clear the park’s and the Conservancy’s commitment to maintaining Glacier’s wilderness a top priority, but the investment in wilderness specific leadership will make an immediate difference in the important work currently underway in this area.

Perhaps the most meaningful reason for the Conservancy’s enthusiastic support of this grant is that following this year (2023) the park has committed to making this position a permanent part of their operation and base budget. That means by making this one-year commitment, we’ll make possible a significant shift in park priorities that helps recognize and support their real commitment to Glacier’s wilderness and the importance of protecting it for future generations. 

Photo: Andrew Schnell

Funding Needed: $15,000

DNA sequencing technology has become powerful and affordable enough to allow scientists in the park to propose this innovative project to identify insect samples from Glacier’s alpine and glacial streams.

As you likely know, Glacier has one of the most intact ecosystems of any National Park and keeping it that way depends on determining and protecting the health of the interdependent resources that make up the landscape.

Glacial streams in Glacier are critical refugia for mountain biodiversity, harboring many rare and poorly known insect species. These species are physiologically adapted to cold temperatures, and their survival depends on permanent cold water from melting ice and snow. Climate change is shrinking sources and habitats, and insect populations are genetically fragmented due to uphill migration toward cold water sources. Two rare alpine aquatic species, the meltwater stonefly and the western glacier stonefly, have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to climate-change-induced glacier loss. The overall ecological health of aquatic environments can be described by comparing the composition and structure of aquatic insect communities to reference conditions. Continued monitoring of alpine and glacial stream species, especially ESA petitioned stoneflies, is essential to assess the effects of a changing climate on Glacier’s unique biodiversity.

Traditional bioassessment sampling is time consuming and expensive, and often the most informative and diverse groups of animals are difficult or impossible to identify to the species level. Using the powerful and increasingly affordable methods of DNA-based identification will provide rapid identification of alpine and glacial stream insect samples. This technology uses DNA sequences extracted from study organisms to those in remote databases to identify individuals at a higher resolution than previously possible. As closely related species may have different temperature or ecological tolerances, higher-resolution identifications will allow us to detect and track community changes at a finer-scale than ever before.

Funding Needed: $45,924

Studies done by the NPS and Flathead Lake Biological Station suggest a decrease in water quality in Lake McDonald due to increase in nitrogen and phosphorus. The funding for this project will allow more investigation to be done and the creation of a long term monitoring plan and mitigation. 

Funding Needed:  $80,000

It’s hard to overestimate what is at stake in preventing the introduction of invasive mussels into the park’s pristine waters and more broadly, to the ecosystem of the Columbia River Basin. This project supports a robust public-private partnership that leverages state, federal, and private funds to keep the Columbia River Basin free of destructive invasive species. 

Funding Needed: $6,000

The Flathead Wild and Scenic River is a national treasure and the inspiration behind the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. This project utilizes a match from the Flathead National Forest and Flathead Rivers Alliance to co-sponsor a Big Sky Watershed Corps intern, in an effort to support visitor engagement, volunteer coordination, water quality monitoring, development of educational tools, and river use data analyses. 

Funding Needed: $105,940

This project will monitor alpine and wetland rare plants, alpine vegetation communities, whitebark pine, and grassland species found within the park. These studies will inform future conservation efforts by revealing any trends in the populations of rare, alpine, wetland, and grassland plants within the park.

Funding Needed: $55,000

This project will implement the final phase of night sky lighting retrofitting in the Many Glacier Valley. Finalizing this work will allow the park to complete the necessary steps to achieve, and retain, certification as an International Dark Sky Park with Waterton Lakes National Park through the International Dark Sky Association.

Funding Needed: $50,000

This project will support a Sustainability Educator from the Montana Conservation Corps Big Sky Watershed Conservation Internship program who will work to identify areas of improvement in park operations, contribute to comprehensive public outreach programs, and seek partnership opportunities to further park sustainability efforts. In addition, funding will expand recycling operations and provide electricity to the public facing vehicle charging stations.

Funding Needed: $181,400

This project will rebuild the Granite Park backcountry cabin that was destroyed by snow creep in 2018. The cabin is used by trail crews, backcountry rangers, wildlife researchers, and maintenance crews. The absence of the cabin has greatly impacted operations in the area.