KALISPELL, Mont. — Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow is retiring from the National Park Service at the end of the year.
Mow has worked for the agency for 33 years, the last eight at Glacier National Park in northern Montana, while the park dealt with destructive wildfires, rebuilding the historic Sperry Chalet which was destroyed by fire in 2017, record visitation and a pandemic. This summer, for the first time, Glacier park adopted a ticketed entry system to limit traffic on the iconic Going-to-the-Sun Road.
“I would say he had the most complicated tenure of any superintendent at Glacier, and he did it with a lot of respect, kindness and grace,” Michael Jamison, of the National Parks Conservation Association, told the Flathead Beacon. “It took a certain kind of person, honestly, especially at a park that is so intimately tied to its local communities and tribes. Jeff took that really seriously, and it’s reflected by the depth of the relationships he developed.”
In April, Mow assumed a temporary position overseeing the National Park Service’s Alaska region, a move that allowed him to see Glacier will be in capable hands as he retires.
“There was something about stepping away for the past six months and just watching that gave me a lot of confidence. I am just so pleased with how the staff carried out our mission,” Mow said. “I think what every superintendent dreams of is having a staff that functions pretty seamlessly in their absence, and I definitely have a dream team.”
During Mow’s tenure, he deepened the park’s relationship with the Blackfeet Nation, working with tribal leaders on a new program to return bison to their native landscape and closing the eastern entrances to the park so the tribe could protect its members from park visitors during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Blackfeet Tribe takes this opportunity to thank Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow for his years of service to the park and for the wonderful working relationship he established with the Blackfeet Tribe,” said James McNeely, a tribal spokesperson. “Together, both entities worked in the best interest of all.”
Mow, who lives in Whitefish with his wife Amy, said he is retiring to spend more time with his 98-year-old father, to be free to visit his son who is moving abroad and to enjoy the area.
“If there is a hallmark of my time at Glacier, I hope that it’s to instill a sort of thinking about what is possible when you have strong relationships and partnerships with the local communities, agencies and tribes,” Mow said. “Because whatever I may have accomplished wouldn’t have been possible without them.”
As superintendent of Glacier, Mow oversaw 1,562 square miles (4,045 square kilometers) of wilderness, a staff of about 155 with an operating budget of more than $14 million.
