Glacier National Park

National forests in Montana are shutting down developed recreation sites in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visitors can still recreate on most those federal lands, but should not expect any amenities.

Glacier National Park will continue offering free shuttle rides for visitors around the park in 2020. The service has been in question after Flathead County pulled out of its contract to run the shuttles.

Last week, Glacier National Park announced that it will be changing signs warning that its signature glaciers would disappear by 2020. The park says the signs, put in more than a decade ago, were based on the best available predictions at the time.

Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton spoke about what changed with Caitlyn Florentine, a research physical scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center.

Glacier National Park officials say they will continue a shuttle service along the Going-to-the-Sun Road, with or without Flathead County. County officials voted last week to end the 12-year long relationship with the park.

A two-year-long road construction project will bring significant delays in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park beginning in the spring. The park is encouraging visitors next season to avoid the area.

The project will involve culvert replacement, drainage repairs and resurfacing along many Glacier Road. The road will close April 1 through mid-May next year and again in late September. The park is encouraging visitors to frequent other areas of the park when the road is open in an effort to reduce congestion.

Flathead County is canceling its decade old shuttle service in Glacier National Park. County officials say the Park isn’t keeping up its end of the deal as growing crowds drive up costs. 

Two stone fly species found in Glacier National Park were listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act Wednesday due to the impacts of climate change, according to a rule published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The two species, the western glacier stone fly and the meltwater lednian stone fly, depend on glacial meltwater in high-elevation alpine environments. But scientists estimate the famed ice masses and snowfields of Glacier National Park will have mostly disappeared by 2030.

The reconstruction of the Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park is nearly complete after two seasons of work. The historic chalet was consumed by Sprague Fire in 2017, leaving only its stone exterior.

Guests will again be able to stay in the chalet in the 2020 season. Acting Glacier National Park spokesperson Gina Kerzman says that only the finishing touches are left on the Sperry Chalet.