Date: January 5, 2022
Contact: Gina Kerzman, 406-888-5838
WEST GLACIER, Mont. [January 5, 2022] – The Countrywide Park Provider (NPS) has permitted Glacier Nationwide Park’s Comprehensive Telecommunications Plan. On December 13, 2021, the Regional Director for NPS Inside Regions 6, 7, and 8 signed a Discovering of No Important Affect (FONSI) for the environmental evaluation (EA) organized for the system.
Actions underneath the system will deal with deficiencies in NPS radio, cell phone, personal computer and details-centered telecommunications methods that aid park operations. The prepare will allow for a versatile response to modifying interaction needs and advancements in technological know-how, which includes upgrading to new technologies and/or eliminating unwanted NPS telecommunications infrastructure if needed.
Improvements to NPS methods will involve phone method updates, improved Online pace and access, improved digital file and data sharing, distant accessibility to digital video stability techniques, additional reliable reporting for utility alarms, improved radio communications in areas where by radio protection is inadequate, and backup radio communications. Job locations include existing NPS telecommunications internet sites and/or designed areas at Numerous Glacier, Two Medicine, East Glacier, St. Mary, the Polebridge, Walton, and Goat Haunt Ranger Stations, Main Mountain Port of Entry, Logan Go Visitor Heart, the Loop on the Likely-to-the-Sunshine Road (GTSR), and Apgar Mountain. The approach also includes achievable radio repeater web-sites in the park’s encouraged wilderness, such as Elk Mountain and Hunting Glass Hill.
Some of the adjustments to infrastructure and machines as a end result of NPS telecommunications advancements include things like:
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setting up or replacing telecommunications infrastructure and products, these as radio antennas and microwave dishes
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changing three tools poles (equivalent in sizing and physical appearance to a phone pole) with 40-foot lattice frame towers and extending the top of a person 40-foot tower to 80 toes (roughly 6 ft vast at the base)
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putting in a radio repeater at the Loop on the GTSR, such as an estimated 30-foot mast, antenna, and solar panels on the roof of the existing ease and comfort station
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putting in momentary radio repeaters for use throughout short-phrase non-unexpected emergency jobs or situations
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maybe putting in long lasting radio repeaters (consisting of an about 5x4x5-foot devices shelter, 20-foot mast, and solar panels) on Elk Mountain and other web-sites in recommended wilderness if NPS radio communications are not sufficiently enhanced by other actions. Other locations in recommended wilderness preliminarily identified for achievable everlasting repeaters incorporate the Stomach River, Nyack, or Two Medicine parts, or on Mt. Brown
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upgrading an existing momentary repeater at Hunting Glass Hill, also in advisable wilderness, till the repeater can be moved to a location outside the house the park. Modern developments suggest the Searching Glass Hill repeater might be moved exterior the park devoid of first requiring the enhance.
Also, the prepare permits a approach for professional cellular and/or Internet entry for public and NPS use in specific created spots. Apps for industrial telecommunications infrastructure and protection will only be regarded as at the A lot of Glacier, Increasing Sunshine, Two Medication, and Lake McDonald Lodge created areas. Coverage shall be limited to these made parts only. Business infrastructure and coverage will not be permitted right until a web site-distinct critique is finish and any software is approved in accordance with the NPS appropriate-of-way allowing process. Professional communications companies interested in distributing a proposal really should speak to Glacier Nationwide Park representative Brian McKeon at e-mail us.
The system establishes disorders and parameters on the placement, dimensions, amount, and sort of commercial telecommunications infrastructure and equipment. Only industrial infrastructure with negligible visibility and impacts to park sources shall be permitted, this sort of as micro cell web pages or wireless obtain factors. Remarkably obvious infrastructure will not be permitted underneath the strategy, like big-scale towers. The plan will not allow professional telecommunications infrastructure in proposed wilderness or in the park’s Backcountry Zone as described in Glacier’s 1999 Basic Administration Approach. The program requires that signal spillover outside the house authorized spots be minimized as substantially as technologically feasible, including in proposed wilderness and together park roadways.
In June of 2021, the NPS solicited official community opinions on the program and EA. A summary of reviews and NPS responses is attached to the FONSI.
For extra comprehensive information on steps in the strategy, the Complete Telecommunications Plan EA and Locating of No Major Effect are accessible on the NPS Organizing, Surroundings & Public Remark (PEPC) web site.
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