Missoulian: Nonprofits ponder role in National Parks funding

Missoulian: Nonprofits ponder role in National Parks funding: "Nonprofits ponder role in National Parks funding
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian


WEST GLACIER - Ten years ago, Curt Buchholtz could not have imagined building an outhouse for the National Park Service.

But last year, he did just that.

'It's a nice outhouse,' he said. 'Doesn't smell at all.'


Likewise, buying emergency defibrillators for park rangers would have been unthinkable a decade back, Buchholtz said, but, as with the outhouse, he delivered.

Buchholtz is executive director of the Rocky Mountain Nature Association, a friend-of-the-park group partnered with Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Many of America's national parks are partnered with a friends group, a nonprofit that helps put the financial icing on the government's appropriation cake."