Study: Blasting bad for Glacier National Park

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Glacier National Park officials, citing concerns about wildlife habitat, have rejected a BNSF Railway proposal to use explosives for preventing avalanches that could send snow onto railroad tracks. Instead, the railroad should spend millions of dollars to build more snowsheds--canopies over segments of track--to keep snow from blocking the route along the park's southern edge, according to an environmental document released Thursday by park officials, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and the Montana Department of Transportation. A few years ago, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. asked Glacier for a permit to use explosives for avalanche control in a canyon where snow blocked the tracks for 29 hours. A series of avalanches occurred, derailing an empty freight train and just missing cleanup... [read full story]