WEST GLACIER – Against the backdrop of a warming world, Glacier National Park and its waning namesakes have for years stood out as one of the most tangible manifestations of climate change.
And because the park’s administrative brass consistently marches at the vanguard of research, education and climate-friendly initiatives, Glacier Park has assumed a dual role, serving both as a poster child for the perils of global warming and a trailblazer in the efforts to mitigate its effects.
So last week, when the National Park Service unveiled its Green Parks Plan and set a target of collectively reducing its carbon emissions by 35 percent by 2020, Glacier National Park stood poised to easily hit that mark.
Unfortunately, that alone won’t save Glacier’s glaciers, but officials believe it can help slow the rate of change.
The colossal ice masses that once draped the park’s high alpine peaks have faded from an enduring crystalline blue to a pale and ephemeral latticework and are now on the brink of extinction.
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Since its establishment in 1910, Glacier has lost most of its glaciers, and more than two-thirds of the estimated 150 glaciers that existed in 1850 had disappeared by 1980. During that same time period the surviving glaciers were greatly reduced in area, and scientists predict the icy landscape will be officially glacier-less by 2030.
It reflects a worldwide pattern of glacial retreat and climactic change caused by greenhouse gas emissions, and while the National Park Service comprises only a tiny fraction of the federal government’s annual emissions, the agency has embarked on a mission to lead by example, said Shawn Norton, the agency’s chief of Sustainable Operations and Climate Change.
“We must begin by understanding our own carbon footprint and by taking responsibility,” Norton said. “Once we achieve that level of understanding we start to engage the public in a national conversation. We have 280 million visitors annually, so every action we take can yield additional actions by our visitors, and that cumulative effect becomes quite impressive.”
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The agency’s 397 parks, preserves, monuments, battlefields and other historic sites produce the equivalent of 328,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases a year, Norton said – a relatively small portion of the federal government’s annual emissions, which exceed 121 million metric tons.
With sustainability already an integral part of the park service’s culture and mission, it is well-positioned to make further reductions to its carbon signature. And at Glacier Park, which in 2003 became only the second park within the agency to be dubbed a “Climate-Friendly Park,” leading by example means continuing to implement the climate-friendly measures it’s been exploring for more than a decade.
Today, approximately 190 parks are completing greenhouse gas inventories, according to Leigh Welling, chief of the Climate Change Response Program for the Park Service, and who previously directed the scientific research and education center at Glacier Park. More than 70 parks are now participating in the program, she said, which Norton helped launch and which prompts parks to step up and lead by example.
As climate change science continues to evolve and the international discussion on climate change policy remains fraught with debate, Welling said the agency needs to be at the forefront of modeling green and sustainable behavior.
Glacier Park was among the first to conduct a greenhouse gas footprint analysis. Park officials subsequently drafted a climate action plan aimed at reducing the park’s carbon footprint and began communicating the effects of climate change through interpretive programs and materials, and communicating the mission to its employees and visitors.
When scientists conducted a cursory survey of Glacier Park’s emissions, they found that the 1 million-acre wilderness park produced less than 1 percent of Montana’s total emissions, with about 85 percent of the park’s output coming in the form of vehicle exhaust. By contrast, Glacier’s forests retain an estimated 79,000 tons of carbon equivalent every year, according to the early figures.
So while the Park Service is not a principal culprit of climate change, it is perhaps more burdened by the problem than any other federal agency, and is therefore a major stakeholder in the mission to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas.
Much of the success of the Green Parks Plan hinges on park employees – more than 20,000 – along with 220,000 volunteers, park partners and concessionaires adopting the sustainability plan “and embedding it in what we do, every day,” Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis said.
Denise Germann, a spokeswoman for Glacier Park, said day-to-day sustainability measures touch every division of the park. Maintenance and facility crews build and remodel for efficiency, while scientists gear their research toward monitoring a changing climate and park employees personify a “green” lifestyle.
Everything from light bulbs to toilet paper to the park’s fleet of vehicles contributes to Glacier Park’s sustainability plan, she said.
“It is wonderful to work for an agency where it is such a normal day-to-day activity that it flows into all of our personal lives,” Germann said. “We car pool, we have a bike-share program. It literally influences every sphere of what we do.”
The park’s historic motor coaches were restyled in 2001 to run on propane, and most of the fleet of more than 300 vehicles runs on some sort of biofuel. The Apgar Transit Center is one of about 65 buildings in the park system certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The park’s radio receivers and transmitters are solar-powered, and a new radio-repeater site in Two Medicine is powered by a vertical-axis wind turbine, which is both environmentally friendly and safe for birds, Germann said.
To qualify as a “climate-friendly park,” Norton said Glacier was required to craft an environmental management plan to measure its impact and then map a path to reduce it.
A major component of that has been education and outreach, and many of the park’s popular trails and visitor centers feature signs explaining climate change. Informational handouts are distributed at the park’s entrances, and the “Junior Ranger” booklet and park newsletter both have pages about climate change.
Visitors can also attend campfire programs about climate change or listen to the “Goodbye to Glaciers” presentation at the solar-powered Logan Pass Visitor Center, which this summer will debut its brand-new, solar-powered, waterless restroom facility.
“Those infrastructural changes are critical because they promote behavioral shifts in our visitors,” Norton said. “People see low-flow or waterless urinals and compost bins and that helps model their behavior. And if they bring that home to their community, then we start to see a really beautiful bridge being built.”
But to achieve the goals laid out by the Green Parks Plan, which does not contain any additional funding, Norton said behavioral changes like turning off lights and carpooling are going to be critical.
And if naysayers are still skeptical about the cumulative effect of those less-costly changes, just do the math.
If half of the 280 million people who visit parks each year reduce their individual carbon footprint by 10 percent – “which literally means changing out some light bulbs and making small behavioral changes,” Norton said – it would prevent 150 million metric tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking 25 million cars off the road, Norton said.
“That is the exponential potential our visitors have when they engage in climate-friendly action,” he said.
Missoulian Flathead Valley Bureau reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at (406) 730-1067 or at tscott@missoulian.com.
NEW YORK, March 31 — On March 31 monuments around the world will pull the plug and individuals will plunge themselves into darkness for the annual Earth Hour — a global event designed to raise awareness of climate change and the environmental issues facing our world.