Glacier Park Shuttle Update, Toxic Spill, Invasive Brown Trout Alert & Bison Range Baby Boom

Join host Taylor Inman for 4 major stories shaping Northwest Montana - from Glacier's Logan Pass shuttle system holding steady through peak season to a bison baby boom on the Flathead Reservation.

Glacier's new Logan Pass shuttle system is running full since the Highline Trail opened, according to Superintendent David Roemer. The park now limits parking to three hours at Logan Pass and thirty minutes at Oberlin Bend, ticketing vehicles that overstay.

A commercial truck tipped into a ditch in Evergreen Monday night, spilling an estimated 4,000 gallons of asphalt seal coat. Crews cleared most of the liquid within hours, though a damaged utility pedestal knocked out internet and phone service in the area.

"It's a big deal" - that's how fisheries biologist Kenny Briedinger describes the discovery of nonnative brown trout in Ashley Lake and Church Slough. Officials believe the fish were illegally introduced and are asking anglers to report any brown trout caught upstream of the SKQ Dam.

Bison calves known as "red dogs" are roaming the Flathead Reservation's Bison Range this summer, part of a herd of 350 adults and 80 calves. Biologist Shannon Clairmont says the herd descends directly from bison the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes once managed before the U.S. government forced their removal.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Hello, and welcome to News Now. I'm your host, Taylor Edman. We're going over the week's biggest headlines for Northwest Montana. So far, so good for Glacier National Park's Logan Pass shuttle system. At the North Fork interlocal meeting last week, Superintendent Dave Romer said the operation of Glacier's New Express shuttle service to Logan Pass has gone well during the early days of the summer season. He noted once the Highline Trail opened to Granite Park Chalet, the shuttles went from seeing little use to being full. The park began offering a shuttle to Logan Pass for both the west side and the east side for hikers as it now limits parking at Logan Pass to three hours. And other places like Oberlin Bend are limited to half an hour. It has been enforcing the time limits as well to getting cars that don't comply. The new Logan Pass shuttle system was implemented as Glacier no longer has a reservation system to enter the park and its corresponding valleys. Roomer told the crowd at the North Fork Interlocal Meeting that the park has 36 shuttles and its fleet and can serve about 800 people a day. The early reservations for the shuttle were difficult to get, but the bulk of the shuttle seats are released at 7 p.m. the night before on recreation.gov. When the Hungry Horse News recently checked the website at about 9 p.m., some seats were still available. In other words, they're being reserved in hours, not minutes. The shuttle itself is free, though there is a $1 service charge. Roomer noted that the park will finalize its transportation plan this summer after years of pilot programs since the pandemic. The preferred alternative calls for low elevation parking and pairing that with a shuttle service. The park would add 500 to 600 additional parking spaces in Glacier. From a North Fork perspective, the plan also calls for keeping the inside North Fork Road closed to motor vehicles, save for lower class e-bikes, from Camas Creek to Logging Creek, though the road would be maintained for vehicle travel in the event of an emergency. Emergency crews cleaned up thousands of gallons of asphalt seal coat Monday night after a commercial truck tipped into a ditch in Evergreen. Calls reporting the wreck at the intersection of Helena Flats Road and Springwood Lane came in at about 5 40 p.m. on July 20th. The truck, towing a trailer, spilled an estimated 4,000 gallons of asphalt seal coat after tipping into a ditch, according to Flathead County Emergency Management Planner Juanita Nelson. By 11:30 p.m., crews had cleaned up roughly 3,000 gallons of liquid seal coat from the ditch before hoisting the truck out with upholsters. Two dump trucks poured gravel onto the remaining seal coat to dry it up in preparation for it to be cleared out at a later date, according to Nelson. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality was notified of the incident. Evergreen Fire Rescue, Flathead County Emergency Management, Montana Highway Patrol, and Flathead County Roads and Bridges Department were among the agencies that responded. Highway Patrol is investigating the wreck. Nelson could not provide information on the condition of the driver. Underground utilities that run beneath the ditch were unaffected by the spill, Nelson said. However, a pedestal on the south corner of the intersection, an above ground enclosure that houses connections to utility, telecommunication, or access control equipment received significant damage, leading to internet and phone outages, according to Nelson. The Helena Flats Road and Springwood Lane intersection was open as of early Tuesday morning with no traffic restrictions. State wildlife officials are seeking to help combat the suspected infiltration of non-native brown trout into the Flathead River drainage. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks confirmed the presence of brown trout in Ashley Lake after reviewing photos taken by an angler in February. The fisherman told officials he was unsure what he reeled in and released the fish after photographing it. A second brown trout was later caught in Ashley Lake and provided a state fisheries biologist for analysis. Another angler shared photos with the State Wildlife Agency of brown trout that he said he caught in the church slew earlier this week. It's a big deal, according to Carrie Breidinger, a fisheries biologist with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. It's something the agency is taking very seriously, as he said there is a lot of potential for harm from brown trout in the drainage. While state officials stock the prized sports fish in some water bodies, brown trout are considered an invasive species in northwest Montana. The trout preys upon some native species of fish and competes with others for food and other resources. The detections at Ashley Lake and Church Slough are especially concerning, according to Breigenger, as both water bodies are hydrologically connected to the Flathead River. Last summer, a photo surfaced of a brown trout supposedly caught in the Flathead River upstream of the Presatine fishing access site in Evergreen. No landmarks were visible in the photo, so officials were unable to verify the authenticity of the report. Subsequent testing for traces of brown trout DNA in the Flathead River turned up nothing. Breidinger said he feels very confident about the veracity of brown trout observations in Ashley Lake because the photos provided to the officials included identifiable landmarks. He believes that the fish were illegally introduced as the only outlet from the lake, Ashley Creek, is blocked by a dam. Fisheries biologists will analyze the earbones of the brown trout handed over to the State Wildlife Agency for trace elements, which can then be mapped to specific streams to determine where a fish was born. That information, along with observations on the trout's reproductive status, will help officials determine whether the brown trout population in Ashley Lake has become established enough to reproduce. The state agency is urging anglers that catch a brown trout in the Flathead River drainage upstream of the SKQ Dam to kill the fish and report their catch to Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Region 1. You can contact their office at 406-752-5501. Anglers will be asked to submit the brown trout to Fisheries Biologist for analysis. Brown trout can typically be distinguished from other trout species by their golden brown or yellow-brown color and dark spots surrounded by lighter halos. In large water bodies, including Ashley Lake, brown trout may instead appear silvery with a dark green back overlaid by large dark spots. The Confederated Salosh and Kootenie Tribe's bison range is currently flourishing with Montana summer wildlife. From bears and elk to chipmunks and more, they all survive on the rich habitat. On the rolling hills of the open prairie, grazing bison and their little calves, otherwise known as red dogs, roam, wallow, and migrate across the more than 18,000 acre range. Supervisory biologist of the range, Shannon Claremont, says he loves the range because it highlights all of the animals in one beautiful place in the heart of the Flathead Reservation. He said it's kind of a throwback to what the area used to look like, or as close as we're gonna get these days. The range typically sells about 20,000 passes a year, which tracks the number of vehicles that venture through the range. This year they have already sold over 3,000, but this is only the very beginning of their season. The herd currently has 350 adult bison and about 80 calves, which is slightly more than in previous years. Managing the grounds and herd is a team of 8 to 10 maintenance employees and two biologists. Claremont said that the biologists are diligent in monitoring the herd's health daily, watching for potential problems. The herd is left to its natural habitat with no supplemented food or vaccinations. Claremont said that they only intervene when necessary to address pink eye or gore wounds. The herd is a direct descendant of the original bison that once roamed the area. Claremont explained that the U.S. government had ordered the tribe's once free roaming herd to be rounded up, which took about five years, and then sold it off. The government actually repurchased them after they were sold and brought them back to the newly established range. The range was originally set aside as trust land for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes and then sequestered by the U.S. government to create the National Bison Range in 1908. With the passage of the CSKT Compact in 2020, the tribes obtained the land and assumed management. Claremont said it is culturally significant that the tribes have the actual descendants of those first bison in today's herd. He said it really means a lot because the bison used to be everything to the tribes. They followed the herds around throughout the year and got their tools, clothing, and shelter from the bison. It was very important to have that animal close by, and when they brought them up to the range to save them, it was pretty significant, he said. Claremont, who has a handful of herd management tasks, explained that he often collaborates with the federal government to maintain the herds' metapopulations, a group of separate distinct populations of a species. This population is a subset of the government's many bison refuges. This relationship allows them to exchange animals and boost genetics. Another important part of managing the range is ensuring the population is equal to the amount of available grazing land, and the range holds an annual closed auction to help maintain those numbers. They also manage the elk herds on the range because elk are direct competitors for the bison's food source. Other responsibilities include spraying and removing invasive weeds and ensuring visitors stay safe by following the rules and regulations. The range is also currently conducting forestry work, including thinning and managing controlled burns to make sure the area is more fire resilient. The range is open year-round to visitors, with the upper road only closed from October to April. Thanks for joining us. NewsNow is a podcast from the Daily Interlake. We're proud to be the largest independent newsroom in Montana and the longest continuously published newspaper in the region. Today's stories were written by Hungry Horse News Editor Chris Peterson, Daily Interlake reporters Hannah Shields and Hailey Smalley, and Lake County Leader Reporter Emily Messer. You can read the full versions of these stories at dailyinterlake.com. And if you haven't already, subscribe to our YouTube channel to never miss an episode of the pod. Everybody stay safe and have a great week.