Environmental Issues: Wildlands

Warming temperatures could melt every glacier in the park by 2030 and degrade its famous alpine habitat.

You can see the handiwork of glaciers throughout this spectacular park, from the jagged peaks etched by ice fields to the sapphire-colored lakes made brilliant by glacial runoff. But one thing you may not see in Glacier National Park soon is a glacier. Global warming has thrown glacier melting into fast-forward, and scientists predict that by 2030, all the glaciers in the park could be gone. And that's not all that's slipping away. Global warming will also endanger the park's famous alpine landscape -- and the animals and the wildflowers that rely on it to survive.

Rising Temperatures Melt all the Glaciers

Left to their own devices, glaciers shrink and expand at a proverbially slow pace. When the Little Ice Age ended more than 100 years ago, for instance, a natural cycle of warming prompted the ones in Glacier National Park to shrink very gradually. But in recent years, scientists say that heat-trapping pollutants have sharply accelerated glacier melting. In 1968, there were 38 glaciers in the park, but today, U.S. Geological Survey scientists count only 26 ice bodies that still qualify as glaciers. At this rate, scientists anticipate all the park's glaciers will be gone by around 2030. And when they are gone, the park's signature turquoise and milky blue lakes will turn to ordinary flat shades of blue.

Mount Reynolds seen from Logan Pass, Glacier National Park

Warmer Weather Shrinks Alpine Tundra

Driving along the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road, visitors are awed by the sheer, pyramid-shaped peaks that give Glacier National Park its distinctive skyline. But this iconic alpine landscape is especially vulnerable to a warming climate. According to one estimate, treelines in the Rocky Mountains -- the dividing lines between forest and tundra -- may climb as much as three hundred feet upslope for every degree of warming. At Glacier's Logan Pass Visitor Center, scientists have already noticed pines filling in forest patches along the timberline. Shrinking tundra would place at risk many animal species popular with park visitors, such as ptarmigan and marmots.

Milder Winters Diminish Summer Wildflowers

As any summer visitor to Glacier National Park knows, meadows of yellow glacier lilies, deep purple lupine and scores of other alpine wildflowers are almost as spectacular as the park's towering peaks. These hearty survivors are designed to grow in a short season filled with bone-chilling nights. They thrive in mountain meadows where heavy snows make it impossible for tree seedlings to survive. But global warming is likely to drag out the growing season and reduce the snow cover. Longer summers and warmer and drier soil temperatures could prevent wildflowers from growing.

Mountain Streams Become Too Hot for Fish

Glacier National Park's mountain waters may be too cold for the backstroke, but they are great for casting a fly or lure. Thanks to its native bull trout and westslope cutthroat, as well as some rainbow and brook trout introduced at the turn of the last century, fly fishing in the park is rated as world-class. But all of these western coldwater species are acutely vulnerable to the increases in water temperature likely to result from global warming. If things get too hot, trout will simply not survive in some of its current habitat: a study by University of Wyoming scientists suggests that a 5.4-degree increase in summer temperatures would make more than half of the trout streams in the Rocky Mountain region too hot for trout. Also, the EPA found that warming streams may increase the incidence of whirling disease, which is fatal to many trout species.