The Glacier National Park Associates (GNPA) is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that assists with trail work, historic log structure preservation and other projects that the park does not have adequate funding to complete. Volunteer complete a number of major projects yearly, often involving several days in the backcountry.

The Associates manage a Backcountry Ranger Intern Fund. GNPA sponsors a young backcountry ranger intern who worked for 12 weeks in the park's backcountry.

The Associates also manage a Backcountry Preservations Fund. Contributions from backcountry users are used to purchase supplies and materials for the backcountry, ranging from bear-proof boxes to computer programs related to hiking and camping in the backcountry.

Glacier National Park Associates
Speaker Series 2006
Each winter GNPA sponsors a series for guest speakers who discuss park programs and other topics. The speakers are:

January 30, 2006 - Kate Kendall
“Hair Raising Bear Research Part II” Grizzly Bear research in the northern Rockies.

February 27, 2006 - Dan Fagre
“Climate change in the Northern Rockies” What climate change means to the northern Rockies.

March 27, 2006 - Curley Bear Waggoner
Glacier National Park/Northern Rockies and the Blackfeet Nation.

GNPA Volunteer Day
May 20, 2005, 8:30 am
Community Building GNP
Each spring we sponsor a Volunteer Day in Glacier Park. We clear trails, paint, peel logs for historic building restoration, and transplant seedlings in the nursery. This year's projects included helping to clear various GNP trails, working in the park's Native Plant Nursery, planting trees, shrubs and wildflowers from the nursery in disturbed areas of the park and assisting with refurbishing buildings near the park headquarters.

Backcountry Ranger Intern Scholarship
Jason Nielsen, from Cherokee, Iowa, was the GNPA Ranger Intern for 2005. He is a senior at South Dakota State University majoring in Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences. Working out of the Walton Ranger Station, Jason was able to fulfill a dream he had since childhood. His duties required extensive work with the Glacier Backcountry Manage-ment team and many new skills were acquired.

Glacier Greenhouse Scholarship/Internship Program
GNPA provides funding for two internships with the Glacier National Park Greenhouse and Plant Nursery division. Each year a stipend of $300 is provided for a high school student from Columbia Falls and Browning for work at the GNP greenhouses. This year the students receiving the stipends were Tyler Hoyt of Browning and Amanda Gill of Columbia Falls.

Backcountry Preservation Fund In November, letters were mailed to all backcountry users for the 2005 summer season requesting donations. In response to this years mailing GNPA received over $ 2,500.00 and these funds are being used for the rehabilitation of backcountry campsites. Tax-deductible donations are still welcome and may be mailed to our post office box listed above.

2005 Summer Projects Update
While June rains slowed the preparation of buildings members of GNPA, other volunteers, and park personnel accomplished the following 2005 summer projects.

Polebridge Ranger Station
On June 30 Rich Mandl, Kasey Kiphart and Jerry Yenne traveled to Polebridge and painted the small radio building.

Bowman Lake Ranger Station
On July 6 th and 7 th Bill Price, Ed Prach, Horace Sanders and Jerry and Jolynn Yenne completed the painting of the 1920's converted dining hall.

New Sperry Trail Cabin
In spite of being harassed by goats; John Parsons, Rich Mandl, Horace Sanders and Jerry Yenne were able to completely finish painting both the inside and outside of the cabin during their backcountry stay on July 27 through July 29.

Belly River Ranger Station
On August 26 through August 28 Fred and Karen Longhart, Rich Mandl and Cheryl Wright hiked into the Belly River Ranger Station and completed the fire cache building and a trail cabin.

Bowman Lake Patrol Cabin
On August 30 the patrol cabin at Bowman Lake was painted by Ed Baldwin, Ed Prach, Chess Moore and Jerry Yenne.

Kintla Lake Fire Cache
On September 27 the fire cache cabin at Kintla Lake was painted by Ed and Shirley Sullivan, Rich Mandl and John Parsons.