Theodore Roosevelt was our greatest conservation president. President Roosevelt’s boundless vision and determination resulted in a system of national parks that is the envy of the world, and has been called “America’s Best Idea.” Ironically, his namesake national park, which includes his North Dakota homestead, is currently facing a threat that could permanently degrade a patch of land that was supposed to be protected in perpetuity.

Across the nation, an oil and gas boom is taking place, largely through the utilization of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract oil and natural gas from shale formations buried deep beneath the surface. Wells have sprouted up on the outskirts of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and many more are planned there and across the nation, including near other National Park Service-managed lands like Glacier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. But with this rapid boom, the negative impacts of large scale oil and gas development on national parks has largely been ignored. That is why the National Parks Conservation Association has released a new report on how fracking for oil and gas near national parks is already impacting these treasured places, and how impacts could increase unless we act now.

National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing: Balancing Energy Needs, Nature, and America’s National Heritage is a comprehensive report on what large-scale oil and gas development adjacent to national parks does and could mean for these parks and the people who love and visit them. It details the known and suspected impacts of fracking on the environment, including harm to air, water, and wildlife—the things that make our national parks so special. It also provides five case studies that analyze national parks that are already in the middle of the oil and gas fracking boom: Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River.

1. I’d like to say we have all been there—setting the story straight about what it is that we do for work. Here is a fun meme about park interpreters and the various perspectives on what it is they do:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=432122843492538&set=a.430438936994262.90465.210845942286897&type=1&theater

2. The outdoors provides us with amazing experiences, especially in our national parks, but finding opportunities to get outside can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are many organizations and programs that can help. Check out how four youth groups discovered nature and their potential, from Get Inspired Outdoors:
http://www.outdoors.org/getinspiredoutdoors/

3. Sunday March 31’s Google doodle featured César Chávez, the first contemporary Latino American to be honored with a national monument:
http://www.google.com/doodles/cesar-chavezs-86th-birthday

4. Glacier National Park’s Facebook page had some fun on April Fools’ Day–finally capturing a jackalope on camera:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151381855739912&set=a.360427434911.154957.74553624911&type=1&theater

5. Yellowstone National Park Rangers receive all kinds of questions, ranging from “Do you put the animals away at night?” to “How do you turn it [Old Faithful] on?” Here is your dose of Geyser humor:

“Ever wonder why our Old Faithful predictions are so accurate? The whole + or – 10 minutes disclaimer is due to a sticky valve.” – Courtesy of Yellowstone National Park’s Facebook Page.

Have some fun online park stuff to share? Let me know!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

By now, I’m sure you know just how serious the situation is for our national parks due to the sequester cuts which will go into effect later today.

It’s alarming that this very avoidable threat is about to become a reality. From Yellowstone to Cape Cod, the Grand Canyon and Great Smoky Mountains, our national heritage and local economies are at risk.

Information in a recently leaked Park Service planning document about potential impacts to park budgets suggests that the sequester will cause drastic cuts to jobs, educational programs, visitor centers, and visitor access points, including:

• Jobs: Blue Ridge Parkway would cut 21 seasonal interpretive ranger programs, which would result in the closure of 50 percent of its visitor center contact stations at our country’s most-visited national park site. Eliminating these seven stations will put an 80-mile distance between each open facility.
• Education: Gettysburg National Military Park would eliminate 20 percent of its student education programs during the spring, which will impact 2,400 students.
• Impact to Gateway Communities: Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road would delay its reopening by two weeks. Previous closures of this road have resulted in $1 million in lost revenue daily to surrounding communities and concessions.
• Permanent Visitor Center Closure: Mount Rainier National Park would permanently close its Ohanapecosh Visitor Center, affecting 60,000 to 85,000 visitors.
• Tourism:  Independence National Historical Park would close eight of 16 interpretive sites in the spring and fall, such as the Declaration House, the New Hall Military Museum, and the Todd House, impacting more than 84,000 visitors.

Every dollar invested in the National Park Service generates about ten dollars in economic activity—yet in today’s dollars, the Park Service budget has already declined by 15 percent over the last decade. The Park Service’s own peer-reviewed economic report released this past Monday revealed that the nearly 279 million national park visitors in 2011 generated a whopping $30.1 billion in economic activity and supported 252,000 jobs nationwide. Many in the business community are deeply concerned about the wide-ranging effects these sequester cuts could have to the economy: Nearly 300 businesses have signed on to a letter calling on President Obama and Congress to keep parks open.

NPCA will continue to work with members of Congress—as it has for months—to avert the worst consequences these damaging cuts could have on our national parks and the people that love and depend on them. Your voice continues to be critical in sharing the importance of these iconic places with our elected officials. Learn more on NPCA’s website, join the conversation on Twitter at #KeepParksOpen, and please take a moment to tell President Obama and Congress to keep parks open.

On the eastern side of Glacier National Park, rugged peaks give way to high plains where the Glacier border meets Blackfeet tribal lands. On these lands next door to Glacier, oil and gas companies are in the early stages of exploration. There is little doubt that development on Blackfeet lands would be hugely beneficial to the mineral owners. Oil and gas development on this land, where grizzlies roam from tribal lands to national park lands without regard for lines drawn on a map, is an example of a larger conflict that is beginning to play out near national parks across the United States. Americans must decide now if we will develop oil and gas without consideration for our protected lands or if we will strike a balance and work to ensure Glacier and other parks offer the pristine beauty, protected wildlife, and historic value in 100 years as they do today.

In 2016, the National Park Service will celebrate its 100th anniversary. As President Obama decides where and how much oil and gas development to allow on federal lands during the next four years, NPCA hopes he will consider what legacy he wants to leave as the parks embark on their second century. Without sound regulation and planning, national parks could be worse off four years from now than they are today:

• Oil and gas development adjacent to parks could block traditional migratory wildlife corridors, impacting park animal populations.
• Ozone and other airborne pollution from oil and gas wells could harm plants, fish, wildlife, and even the health of park employees and visitors.
• Park fishing could be degraded because of pollution and decreased water levels.
• Flaring natural gas wells could outshine the stars and mar scenic views.
• Industrial noise from drilling operations located too close to park boundaries could drown out birdsongs, howling wolves, and other natural sounds.

Requiring careful planning and common-sense regulations on federal lands adjacent to national parks could stop these impacts today and protect the parks in the future. The president will have significant opportunities over the next four years to ensure that the National Park System is protected from adjacent oil and gas development. His first opportunity relates to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages the 750 million acres of mineral resources underlying BLM, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Native American lands, including land adjacent to many national parks. BLM is in the process of finalizing a new rule regulating how oil and gas are drilled on some public lands. BLM’s proposal focuses on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Fracking is a drilling process where a combination of water, chemicals, and other materials are injected into the ground at extremely high pressure to fracture shale to release oil and natural gas. If the president requires BLM to implement strong regulations governing fracking on federal lands, NPCA believes that parks adjacent to oil and gas development on other federal lands could be better protected. Specifically, we recommend:

1. BLM should inform the public and, when drilling in national park watersheds, the National Park Service, about what chemicals are being used in fracking operations before drilling begins (currently BLM proposes disclosure 30 days after drilling).
2. BLM should require all post-drilling liquids to be contained in closed leak-proof containers. Currently, many drilling operators store these liquids in open pits near well sites that can leak and impact national parks’ air and water quality.
3. BLM should limit the impact that fracking has on air quality. National parks near large concentrations of oil and gas development are seeing a significant increase in bad air quality days. This threatens park visitor health, decreases visibility from scenic park vistas, and can impact park resources. Specifically, BLM should work with the National Park Service to develop and implement air pollution mitigation strategies, such as limits on flaring and capture of fugitive gas, in order to protect national park air quality.
4. BLM should formally collaborate with National Park Service staff to assure that large-scale oil and gas field development is protective of wildlife habitat and migration.
5. BLM should fully and formally engage National Park Service staff when permitting oil and gas wells adjacent to national parks. This will allow BLM and the Park Service to work together to assure America’s national parks are protected.

Protecting America’s most treasured natural resources has been a presidential priority throughout the history of our nation. In spite of a raging Civil War, President Lincoln made preservation of what is now Yosemite National Park a priority. President Theodore Roosevelt, whose namesake national park is now threatened by the impacts of oil and gas development in North Dakota, set aside five national parks and 18 national monuments during his tenure. More recently, President George W. Bush created the world’s largest marine sanctuary in 2009. NPCA hopes President Obama and his administration will responsibly balance energy production with the protection of our natural heritage during the next four years, and by so doing, create an enduring legacy for the next century of the national parks.

If you liked this story, you might also like

• On the Edge: Fracking and the Fate of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (June 19, 2012)
• Walking to Protect Glacier’s Water (September 13, 2012)
• NPCA Celebrates the Preservation of the Hoback Basin (October 16, 2012)

Pauline Matt dreamed that the water was dying and that she had the power to stop it. Her dream was not far from the truth, with fracking arriving on the Blackfeet Indian Nation and adjacent to Glacier National Park in Montana. Instead of allowing the dream to paralyze her, she kept herself moving—literally—by organizing the six-day, 80-mile Chief Mountain Water Walk to help focus the eyes of the nation on this corner of Montana.

Eighty miles doesn’t necessarily sound like a particularly long distance; on I-90 in Montana, it would take only about an hour to drive. But when you’re on foot—and you factor in vehicles flying by at 70 m.p.h., August temperatures pushing three digits, baking pavement, and the fact that Pauline has long qualified for AARP membership—80 miles begins to feel like a very long way indeed.

Pauline knew all of these things before she laced her walking shoes. She also knew how walking that far will make your feet hurt and your calves burn, give you blisters the size of golf balls, and, ultimately, connect you to the landscape in a way you never realized was possible. Perhaps most importantly, Pauline knew that walking from Chief Mountain to Heart Butte, two sacred sites of her Blackfeet Indian Nation, would forever change the way she and her fellow walkers look at the earth. Hers was a journey to connect to a sacred landscape, and to reconnect an entire culture, one deliberate step at a time.

Carrying a rawhide bag of water from a spring at Heart Butte, Pauline and her fellow walkers greeted each morning by burning sweetgrass and offering prayers to the dawn. The days felt much the same—an unremitting rhythm of feet on sun-scorched pavement that unfolded at a ceaseless 3 m.p.h. Osprey, bears, bald eagles, moose, elk, and other creatures appeared along the way, and the ever-shifting views were always awe-inspiring.

Such is this place where mountains and prairies collide, whose snow-capped peaks are the water tower for our nation, where Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation share a sublime border marked for millennia by water, mountains, and life. All of that, however, is changing at a speed that far exceeds the measured pace of Pauline’s “water walkers.”

On today’s Blackfeet Reservation, 1 million acres of land are under lease for oil and gas drilling, including the Tribe’s western boundary, which serves as the eastern doorstep to Glacier National Park. This is a place where grizzly bears still roam the prairies, where wetlands host beaver and moose, and where crystal-clear waters from Glacier’s alpine heights flow through the Blackfeet Reservation and on into Canada, before spilling back into the United States to join the Missouri River. Along this park borderland, developers anticipate drilling more than 80 wells using hydraulic fracturing technology, known as “fracking.”

What could industrial development adjacent to Glacier National Park mean? More dust, more traffic, more lights, more people, and more potential for a catastrophic spill or accident threatening one of the most intact ecosystems in the lower 48 states. It could mean a loss of dark skies to light pollution, the loss of native bull trout from the St. Mary River to water contamination, the loss of endangered grizzly bears to habitat fragmentation, the loss of community water supplies to industry’s unquenchable thirst, or even the simple loss of timeless, expansive views and profound silence.

These are prospects Pauline Matt and her fellow walkers refuse to accept. So for days, they walked and prayed and sang. Along the way, their footsteps sparked an important conversation on the Blackfeet Reservation about two very different futures for this ancient place: one in which oil and gas companies run roughshod over the land and its people, and another in which industry shows respect for the land, making special places off limits. Pauline envisions a future in which her people’s connection to the land provides an endless source of power, strength, hope, and prosperity—like the visionaries did who helped establish Glacier Park a century ago.

The walkers marched their 80 miles in six August days, but that week represents only the beginning of their journey. The ongoing debate over fracking is one that is playing out across the most cherished sites of our entire country. Their walk, ultimately, is about the future of our land, our water, our parks, and our people. We are fortunate to have brave women such as Pauline Matt to take these first steps on our behalf.

Instead, they’ve put down roots in the mountain wilds of the Crown of the Continent—because this spectacular borderland where Montana meets Canada is where these entrepreneurs, their employees, and their investors want to live. It’s a whole new way of thinking about our economy.

“In the winter, we take clients skiing,” said Kevin Waldher, the firm’s vice president of business development. “In the summer, it’s hiking in the park or boating. Last year, we had several investors take a tour of Glacier Park.”

The Crown’s rural lifestyle—often far from markets but close to amenities that deliver a high quality of life—is no longer a trade-off, Waldher said. Today, it’s clearly a leg up, a magnet for economic development.

Waldher is among the many entrepreneurs profiled in NPCA’s new report, “Pathways to Prosperity: the natural roots of economic success in the Crown of the Continent.” The report highlights manufacturers and retailers, tech firms and ranchers, economists and loggers, Canadians and Montanans. In researching the report, NPCA traveled the Crown for months, asking business owners why they choose to live and work there. And what they share, ultimately, is a fundamental connection to the Crown’s wild landscape, with Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park at its heart.

The region’s economic development experts—those professionals whose job it is to attract jobs—note that “as we consult with business owners and investors looking to relocate, we hear that quality of life is as key to their decisions as are tax rates, labor costs, and broadband networks.”

To be sure, our traditional “bricks-and-mortar” infrastructure remains critical, and continued investment in schools, hospitals, airports, and roads will be essential to our economic success. But guess what? Everyone else, everywhere else, is marketing that same traditional infrastructure.

What makes the Crown truly unique in the highly competitive world of economic development is its “natural infrastructure”—Waterton-Glacier, Flathead Lake, the ski slopes of Fernie, British Columbia. These amenities are in high demand and limited supply, and set the area apart in today’s economy.

These are “footloose” times—new technologies and global economic shifts have enabled employers, employees, and entrepreneurs to choose where to set up shop. Increasingly, they are choosing the Crown of the Continent, with its small, friendly communities set in a spectacular natural environment alive with recreational opportunities—clean water, wildlife, and scenic beauty. Their vacations, then, are like job interviews, as they scout for towns in which to relocate their businesses.

Leaders of business and industry are choosing the Crown because its mountain landscape is truly world-class. Waterton-Glacier and Flathead Lake are the “Wall Street of wild lands”; like the banks of New York City or the ports of San Francisco, they are amenities that stand out to the world. And as global economies continue to decentralize, and more businesses seek both lifestyle and livelihood, the Crown’s jewels will only increase in value.

To maintain a competitive advantage in this emergent economy, economic development experts recommend maintaining, enhancing, and investing in our “natural infrastructure,” just as we do with our traditional infrastructure—ensuring that wild lands stay wild, rivers flow clean, and communities sustain their traditional roots, even as we move into a new economy. Because ultimately, such investments in our natural capital represent a critical down payment on our shared economic future.

Get the full report on our website (PDF, 5.7 MB).

-Michael Jamison, Glacier Program Manager, NPCA

If you liked this story, you might also like:

• The Poacher and the Bootleg Lady: How Funding National Parks Preserves Amazing Stories (July 11, 2012)
• Did You Know? Glaciers in Glacier (February 23, 2012)
• Friday Photo: Happy Birthday, Glacier! (May 11, 2012)

He was a park ranger, a prospector, and a poacher–though not necessarily in that order.

She was a wanted woman, a wife, and a whiskey runner.

Now, thanks to a recent purchase by the National Park Service, their colorful story belongs to all of us.

Theirs is a yarn that begins way back in 1890–a full 20 years before Glacier National Park was a park–at a wild-West watering hole in McCarthyville, Montana, known as Slippery Bill’s Saloon. That’s where fur trapper Dan Doody met the famous Josephine.

Word was she’d shot a man down in Colorado (in self defense?) and had washed up on the shores of Montana’s wild and scenic Middle Fork Flathead River. In those days, a string of seedy railroad towns was sprouting up and down the line, and McCarthyville was among the most notorious. Slippery Bill’s was one of 32 saloons in a town without a doctor. Historians like to say you never knew how many had died in a McCarthyville winter until the snows melted out in the spring.

Dan spotted his dance-hall girl not long after she arrived in town, fell straight-away in love, and hauled her to his homestead. The spread covered 160 acres on the northern banks of the Middle Fork, smack-dab in what would soon be known as Glacier Park.

It was a fabulous spot, tucked into the confluence where Harrison Creek spills cold and clear into the whitewater churn of the Middle Fork Flathead River. The property was a refuge for Josephine, and also for the vast elk herds that tracked it seasonally from the river bottom to their high, south-facing winter range. The Doody place was a critical crossroads along an age-old corridor of predator and prey.

In 1910, when Glacier was established, Dan Doody was among the first rangers hired to patrol the park and its timeless flow of wildlife. But just as his property remained a private inholding, Dan remained something of a privateer himself, poaching from the park he was sworn to protect.

Josephine, meanwhile, fired up a still and began brewing the hooch that earned her a dubious distinction as the “bootleg lady of Glacier Park.” Railroaders with the Great Northern provided a steady stream of customers, blowing their whistles from across the river to signal the number of quarts they wanted delivered.

Dan, predictably, lost his post in the park within the year, fired for “excessive poaching.” He died in 1921, but Josephine stayed on at her beloved Glacier Park home. As decades passed–and her famous gold-nugget earrings stretched her ears into long, banana-shaped lobes–she insisted on firing the stills herself, with wood poached unapologetically from “her” park. Josephine died of pneumonia in 1936, at age 82.

The Doody Homestead has since passed through several hands, with the Park Service buying up bits and pieces along the way. But 120 acres remained in private ownership until late last week, when the ranch officially became part of the National Park System. Alongside partners such as the Trust for Public Lands, NPCA pressed hard for the $900,000 needed to close the deal. Ultimately, the exchange was made possible through the Land Water and Conservation Fund (LWCF), an account supported by royalties from off-shore drilling contracts.

The purchase of the Doody spread fills in what has long been a missing link in the historical and natural continuity of Glacier Park–reconnecting wildlife to critical habitats, and communities to their unique Western history. Public ownership of this unique property really means shared ownership of our past–and it represents a down payment on our future, as well. And that, of course, is what America’s parks are all about.

I’d like to think Josephine would approve.

Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Dan Doody died in 1919. In fact, he died in 1921. Thanks to a helpful reader for pointing out this mistake.

If you liked this story, you might also like:

• Did You Know? Glaciers in Glacier (February 23, 2012)
• Friday Photo: Happy Birthday, Glacier! (May 11, 2012)
• Crown of the Continent Showcases a New Model for Economic Prosperity (July 24, 2012)

Learn more about how NPCA’s Glacier Field Office is working to protect the park on our website. And get plenty of travel tips, including the plowing schedule with which roads are open or closed, on the park’s website.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

For more information on climate change and national parks, see NPCA’s research on climate change and the parks and wildlife most affected by it, as well as the Park Service’s Climate-Friendly Parks Program.

-Elizabeth Meyers, Information and Outreach Manager for NPCA’s Center for Park Research