Melting glaciers a concern for Glacier Park's tourism industry

Michael Jamison in the Missoulian (Montana): A warming climate is changing the face of Glacier National Park, and some now worry the transformation threatens not only downstream ecosystems but also the region's important tourism economy. "Tourism brings about $3 billion into Montana every year," said Rhonda Fitzgerald, an innkeeper and member of the state tourism advisory council. "In the Glacier region, it's about $1 billion per year. Those are the economic facts."

And then there are the climate change facts. Between 1900 and 1979, the Glacier Park area experienced an average of 181 days every year when the temperature dipped below freezing. Between 1980 and 2005, warming had reduced the number of below-freezing days to 152.

The region now experiences, on average, eight more days each year when temperatures top 90 degrees, and eight fewer days when the mercury falls below zero. And over the past decade, the park warmed at twice the rate of the overall planet.

Many of the park's small glaciers are gone entirely, and others are shrinking fast. Of the 150 or so glaciers that draped park peaks in 1850, perhaps 25 remain - and most, if not all, will melt out over the next 10 years. "And the reality," Fitzgerald said, "is that even if visitors don't come specifically to see a glacier, they come to see the things glaciers create."

Things like snow-capped mountainsides, and waterfalls and lakes and wildflowers and alpine meadows and wildlife and the stunning turquoise blue of Cracker Lake. Already, that blue has faded from many park waters. Dan Fagre, of the U.S. Geological Survey, says the color is created by "glacial flour" - finely ground rock powder pulverized by glacial movement. As go the glaciers, so goes the turquoise hue….

What was left of the once extensive Grinnell Glacier in 2005, shot by Blase Reardon (USGS)