NPS Mission - National Park Service

National Park Service FY 2013 Budget Justifications
Fiscal Year 2013 National Park Service Federal Land Acquisition Program
Program or Park Area: Glacier National Park Collaborative Landscape Planning
Location: Northern Montana
State/County/Congressional District: State of Montana/Flathead and Glacier Counties/At Large
Congressional District
Land Acquisition Limitation Amount Remaining: There is no limitation.
Cost Detail:
Date Acres Total Amount ($000)
FY 2013 Request 318 $3,323
Future Funding Needed 97 $9,177
Description: The Act of May 11, 1910, established Glacier National Park and today contains approximately
1,000,000 acres. A total of 415 acres remain privately owned at the park. Four collaborating agencies
(NPS, FWS, BLM, and FS) are working to take advantage of opportunities to build resiliency in ecological
systems and communities. Building ecological resiliency includes maintaining intact, interconnected
landscapes, and restoring fragmented or degraded (but restorable) habitats. They have been working
with NGO partners (including The Nature Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, Trust for Public Land,
local land trusts), local community groups such as the Blackfoot Challenge & Rocky Mountain Front
Landowner Advisory Group and state & county government officials, to tailor the federal acquisition
program in a way to achieve synergy between private rights, open space, traditional land uses and
conservation. This shared vision includes maintaining working ranches and forests by acquiring
conservation easements as well as acquiring lands in fee that will provide public access and enjoyment.
Natural/Cultural Resources Associated with Proposal: Executing the planned acquisitions in all four
agencies can contribute to species conservation, such as, grizzly bears, wolverine, lynx, goshawk, willow
flycatcher, sage grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, burrowing owl, Lewis' woodpecker, trumpeter swan, yellowbilled
cuckoo, cutthroat trout, arctic grayling, and Columbia spotted frog. The federal projects complement
the conservation goals of Montana Comprehensive Fish and Wildlife Conservation Strategy (State
Wildlife Action Plan) as well as other conservation plans including the Montana Partners in Flight,
threatened and endangered species recovery plans (bull trout, grizzly bears, lynx, gray wolf), Forest
Management Plans and agency general management and Departmental level strategic plans (i.e., Great
Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative, etc).
Funds are requested for eight tracts. They include the Harrison Creek Tract, a prime example of upland,
riparian and floodplain wildlife habitat; Cracker Lake tracts, in a glacial basin that is the third largest private
holding in the park and the only mining patents in the park; Big Prairie tracts, along the North Fork of the
Flathead in the major migration corridor for grizzly bear, wolf and ungulates; and the Cummings Meadow
tract, which is home to many T&E species and an intact riparian ecosystem, as well as the site of one of the
areas homesteads from the early 1900s.
Threat: If these tracts remain in private ownership, cabins and year-round housing may be developed,
floodplain manipulation or stream bank stabilization measures may be employed to decrease the impact
of natural flooding, migration corridors will be cut and displaced and ecosystems will be degraded. These
activities would jeopardize the natural resources, wilderness, and recreational values of the area.
Resource extraction, including logging or mining, is also likely on some of the properties. Large waterfront
parcels of private property are highly desirable and lack or difficulty of access has proven not to be a
deterrent to purchase and development. Parcels in areas within easy reach of existing infrastructure are
prime for development allowing further displacement of species, and riparian areas are desirable for
human use and development.
LASA-15