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| Iceberg Lake near Many Glacier Hotel |
Since three out of my four novels are partially set in Glacier National Park's Swiftcurrent Valley, I'm happy to see that the Glacier Park Fund's new "adopt a trail program" includes four of the trails that have appeared in my fiction:
- Ptarmigan Tunnel
- Iceberg Lake
- Swiftcurrent Pass
- Grinnell Glacier
While more information will appear on the
Glacier National Park Fund's website soon, the program features Golden Eagle Level adoptions for $10,000 a year and Osprey Level adoptions for $5,000. The money from smaller donations will go into a general adopt a trail fund.
The reason for the program is simple: Congress doesn't appropriate enough money to sustain the park and its some 700+ miles of trails. These trails are damaged by wind, water, snow, and visitor usage. Since the National Park Service cannot afford to maintain all of the trails in the park, the Glacier Park Fund is trying to pick up the slack.
Malcolm
5 comments:
While I think your average park goer won't be able to afford those high adoption fees for adopting individual trails, the general fund is an excellent idea. Most park goers I know (and I'm talking national parks in general, not just Glacier), would do just about anything to help keep their beloved parks open and well maintained. Every dollar helps.
I hope they raise enough money to maintain the trails!
Smoky, I don't know why the adoption fees are set where they are. At least the general trail fund will be afforable.
Me, too, Golden Eagle. The park has lost several hundred miles of trails since I was first there in the 1960s. It doesn't need to lose more.
Malcolm
Very cool idea. If we can adopt highways, we should certainly adopt trails.
I hope some of the people who hike there a lot will help fund trail maintenance. Maybe the idea wikll spread to other ares as well.
Malcolm
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