Holm announces retirement

Glacier National Park superintendent will leave in January

After presiding over the development of an epic road reconstruction project and witnessing major floods and fires in Glacier National Park, Mick Holm has announced that he'll retire as the park's superintendent Jan. 3.

Holm, 58, is retiring after 32 years with the National Park Service, including the past five years at Glacier. He and his wife, Patti, intend to continue living in the Flathead Valley.

"I was eligible to retire a couple years ago, but you reach that point where you accomplish some things that you set out to do and you realize that you're not going to be able to accomplish everything that needs to be accomplished," Holm said Thursday.

Topping a list of accomplishments was the development and implementation of a major reconstruction of Going-to-the-Sun Road. That project started in earnest this summer, but it took years to develop.

"I look back on the five-and-a-half years I've been here and one of the major things is we moved along the major road reconstruction work," he said, recalling how former National Park Service Director Fran Mainella once described it as one of the largest projects in the service's history in terms of scope and breadth.

Planning for the project started more than 10 years ago, and involved a vast amount of public involvement, including input from a Citizens Task Force. The work is expected to carry on for the next eight or 10 years at a cost of $150 million to $170 million, according to recent estimates from the Federal Highway Administration.

Holm worked with Montana's congressional delegation in securing initial funding for the work.

"There are so many pieces to a project like this," Holm said. "We realized that this wasn't just an ordinary road repair … It was also helping the local economy survive while the road work was going on."

A major part of the planning included developing ways to offset visitor impacts that were expected to result from construction delays and closures. One of those measures was the establishment of a free transit system aimed at reducing traffic on the road. With construction of a new transit center near Apgar, that system began operation this year with impressive visitor use.

Holm cites the construction of a $6.5 million wastewater treatment plant serving Apgar and the park headquarters area, as well as developing a stronger relationship with the neighboring Blackfeet Tribe as other accomplishments under his watch.

Holm, a native of Conrad and a University of Montana graduate, considered it a homecoming of sorts when he was hired as Glacier's superintendent in 2002. He had previously been superintendent at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, deputy superintendent at Mammoth Cave National Park, park manager at Knife River Indian Village Historic Site and district interpreter at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation area. He started his career in 1975 at Montana's Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.

Holm said his most memorable times at Glacier included the summer of 2003, when wildfires swept through the park, one of them forcing the evacuation of Apgar and West Glacier. He also recalls last November's torrential rainstorms that caused severe flooding in the park, with damage to Sun Road that is still being repaired.

In both cases, Holm said he is proud of how the park's staff and surrounding communities responded.

He said his most emotional experience happened last September, when he become an honorary chief of the Blackfeet Tribe.

"My tribal name is 'Spii Piita,' which means 'High Eagle," Holm said. "I was touched to be given such an honor."

Holm said he will miss working with the park staff, as well as park partnership organizations and neighboring communities that have supported the park.

"My parting words would be thank you to the surrounding communities that have been so supportive of me," he said.

Glacier's deputy superintendent, Stephanie Dubois, will serve as acting superintendent until the position is filled. Holm said the process will carry on over the next few months, and Glacier should have a new superintendent by next summer.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com