From the Friday, February 4, 2005 issue of the Missoulian . . .
(This is another of Michael Jamison's excellent articles. Although focused on issues surrounding Glacier Park, it contains a number of references to the North Fork.)
To the north, Glacier National Park's pristine heritage is beset by Canadian plans to mine for coal and drill for gas.
To the west, residential construction is fragmenting the landscape, eating up habitat and cutting off corridors wildlife has relied upon for centuries. To the east, livestock are trespassing, grazing inside park boundaries. And to the south, plans to upgrade the highway that wraps under the park could create a barrier too wide and too fast for critters like grizzly bears to cross.
The year was 1980, and the Missoulian had just published a special 12-page report called "Glacier under siege," detailing the threats pressing from all sides on the Crown of the Continent.
Fast-forward a quarter century, to 2005, and you'll find that Glacier's still under siege, the list of threats surprisingly unchanged in 25 years.
"It's quite interesting," park superintendent Mick Holm said. "A lot of the challenges - a really significant percentage of them - that the park was experiencing 25 years ago are still there today."
And, Holm said, "I would not be surprised if 25 years from now some of these same challenges are still on the table."
Read the entire article . . .