Glacier Restriction Plan Favors Elitists No Restrictions Access To National Parks Should Be Equal For All.

Visitors don’t travel to Glacier National Park from all over the world to be herded onto shuttle buses and chaperoned up Going to the Sun Highway to Logan Pass.

When they arrive at the majestic Montana park, they want to climb in and out of their own vehicles, when and where they desire, to experience firsthand the park’s glacial fingers, majestic peaks, hidden lakes and flora and fauna. They also expect good in-park accommodations and concessions.

Your average Joe and Jane have as much right to enjoy Glacier National Park - their way - as the back-to-nature elitists behind preliminary plans to limit park access. Controversial proposals call for restricting traffic on the main Going to the Sun Highway, leveling a motel and removing campgrounds and assorted in-park services.

In other words, the alternatives favor those who are able to hike in Glacier’s backcountry over those who rely on vehicles. No wonder the radical suggestions met stiff opposition at recent informational meetings in Montana.

Park visitor Cliff Lawrence of Fort Shaw, Mont., spoke for the majority when he said: “I think the park was built for people. It’s our park. We ought to be able to come here and use it.”

The problem with Glacier National Park isn’t people. The problem is inadequate funding to handle the 2.1 million visitors who come to gawk at Glacier’s splendor, ride bikes, hike and dip their toes in Lake McDonald.

Glacier’s $750,000 budget simply isn’t enough, particularly when a tenth of that amount is needed to keep roads open, such as the 50-mile Going to the Sun Highway. Rather than reserve yet another million acres of virtual wilderness for the backpacking set, the National Park Service should try to increase funding by raising fees and lobbying for more federal dollars.

Interestingly, this debate is taking place at a time when visitor numbers at Glacier and Yellowstone national parks are off 3 percent to 4 percent. Many reasons are given for the dropoff: Floods and a fatal rock slide this spring at Glacier. Gasoline prices. Traffic jams. The Atlanta Olympics.

Maybe Glacier National Park has reached a visitor saturation point. Maybe the days of 4 percent annual visitor growth are over.

Maybe park officials should remember all Americans - not just the backcountry crowd - underwrite Glacier National Park.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see “Parks should be treated as sacred”

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