Glacier Park wants to replace trailers

Glacier National Park is requesting public comment on a proposal to construct replacement employee housing in the Swiftcurrent employee housing area at Many Glacier and in the East Glacier Ranger Station compound.

The new housing would replace 10 National Park Service-owned trailers in the St. Mary District employee housing area that are severely deteriorating from age, rodent infestations and mold.

Installed in the 1960s, the trailers were intended to be temporary. Lack of funding for permanent housing has led to their continued use to this day. One trailer has been condemned and three others have been removed from the housing list due to their poor condition.

Over the years, a number of locations have been considered, both inside and outside the park, to construct new housing to replace the trailers. The Swiftcurrent housing area at Many Glacier and the ranger station compound in East Glacier were initially dismissed due to long commuting distances for employees. Currently, these areas are considered the best options for replacement housing. Both have adequate existing utilities and building at the sites would cause the least amount of new disturbance. Both of these areas are historic districts.

Due to floodplain management and National Park Service policy, housing will not be rebuilt at the existing site in St. Mary because it is within the Divide Creek floodplain. Removing the St. Mary trailers will be a first step toward implementing a decision from the 1999 management plan to relocate all St. Mary infrastructure out of the Divide Creek flood hazard zone. Divide Creek floods frequently, usually as a result of rain-on-snow events, putting human safety and government property at potential risk.

Go to www.parkplanning.nps.gov/EastSideHousing. Comments can be posted to this website or mailed to Superintendent, Glacier National Park, Attn:  East Side Housing EA, P.O. Box 128, West Glacier, MT, 59936. Comments are due Aug. 6.