Lunch Creek: A case study of wilderness restoration adjacent to Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, MT

The Lunch Creek area is situated at an elevation of 6000 feet on the east side of the Continental Divide in northwest Montana.  The creek drainage is bisected by the Going-to-the- Sun Road. In spite of its proximity to the road, the Lunch Creek drainage is managed as designated wilderness.  The grandeur of high mountain peaks, cascading water falls and vivid carpets of wild flowers are extremely enticing to visitors. The rich mosaic of pristine subalpine vegetation is in close proximity to several of Glacier’s state listed, sensitive plant species. Large bare areas of trampled ground are evident and there are a myriad of social trails which dead-end on slippery rock overhangs, presenting extraordinary safety hazards. The restoration of this area involved many innovative techniques to insure that our work was sustainable.  We utilized a partnership with Montana State University to conduct visitor use surveys with visitors over a period of several weeks.  Some were given a GPS unit and their travel routes through the area were mapped.  This allowed us to plan a trail through the area that provided safe opportunity for visitors to explore while safeguarding sensitive resource.s  We developed a method of producing sod mats composed of site-specific native forbs/carex/grasses that could be transported to the site and rolled into existing social trails to completely obliterate any evidence of their existence.  We produced site-specific mycorrhizae to inoculate this sod and other containerized plants in our nursery, developed from propagules taken from the Lunch Creek area.