Group Opposes Reopening Of Glacier Campgrounds Foundation Says Decision Will Disrupt Prime Grizzly Habitat

The Great Bear Foundation is opposing planned reopening of the Quartz and Logging Creek campgrounds in Glacier National Park.

Brian Peck, bear-recovery director, said the campgrounds provide only minimal camping spaces but reopening them will have a major impact in reintroducing human activity into prime grizzly bear habitat.

Peck told Superintendent Dave Mihalic by letter that the park’s decision circumvented a public-hearing process that is required when endangered species are involved with management decisions. The Bozeman-based foundation asks that the park conduct an environmental analysis and preferably an environmental impact statement before reopening the campgrounds.

Peck said activity at the campgrounds, located in riparian areas of the North Fork drainage, could also impact two wolf packs known to frequent the area.

The campgrounds have been closed for seven years.

Reopening them means nearly all the wolves and many of the grizzlies in the area “will suddenly be faced with a development they’ve never encountered before, right in the middle of key habitat,” he said.

Park officials have yet to formally respond to the foundation’s concerns. But park spokesperson Amy Vanderbilt said the campgrounds were closed in the summer of 1990 purely because of budget constraints.

The decision to reopen the campgrounds, Vanderbilt said, is aimed at restoring “traditional, historic services that had been provided.” Historic cabins at the Logging Creek Campground are slated for refurbishing this summer.

She noted the entire park, not just the Quartz and Logging Creek campgrounds, is considered grizzly country.