Public parks, public information

We are relieved that the National Park Service has decided not to withhold information on injuries, accidents, deaths, and crimes that occur in national parks.

Such information has always been available in the past, but Glacier Park and several other parks recently decided they had a greater obligation to protect the privacy of park visitors and employees than to provide information on activities and newsworthy events that happen on public land.

That meant authorities would no longer provide information on people involved in news events in the parks.

The Daily Inter Lake strongly objected, as did the president of the Montana Newspaper Association. Fortunately, our voices were heard, and the Park Service should be commended for quickly reversing course and once again giving the public full access to park neaws.

An interim nationwide policy adopted by the agency last week restored the release of public data and brings uniformity to national parks across the country.

Park officials will provide the names, ages, and hometowns of people involved in incidents; relevant details of events; names of fatality victims after their relatives have been notified; descriptions of lost, stolen, or missing property; and criminal charges.

The park service will not release names of juveniles charged with crimes, names of victims of sexual assaults, names of witnesses who could be retaliated against, information that could compromise an active investigation, explicit details or photos of injuries; or home addresses, telephone numbers, and Social Security numbers.

Overall, it appears to be a well-reasoned solution.

Last summer, we saw how frustrating the lack of a good policy on releasing information can be.

Two hikers were mauled by a grizzly bear on the Grinnell Glacier trail. Park officials refused to release the names of the victims, as they always had done before, and advised the Inter Lake to file a Freedom of Information Act if we wanted the information. At the time, it was impossible to know if the injured father and daughter were local residents or visitors, or to obtain any information about their injuries.

We did file a Freedom of Information request, but when the relevant documents were released, the names of the victims had been removed, making the whole exercise pointless. Meanwhile, the victims, from San Diego, had already gone public with the story in their hometown. There is no question that such a story is of interest to people, and had it happened outside of park boundaries, the identities of the people involved and details about the incident would have been readily available.

We're glad that Glacier National Park officials will once again release information on events that happen virtually in the back yard of the Flathead Valley.

Public lands, public services, public interest, public information. They all go together. The park is right to keep the information flowing.