A bill working its way through the Senate right now, S-22, has some provisions you may be interested in. It's called the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009. Mainly, it sets aside a heckuva lot of wilderness areas. But the thing that brought it to my attention is that it sets aside some money to develop a "national geologic trail" focused on Glacial Lake Missoula, with an interpretive center to be located in Missoula, Montana. The Senate website describes it like this:

The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Designation Act (S. 268 and H.R.
450), would create a trail to document the catastrophic flooding that stretched
across parts of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington during the last Ice Age.
The designation of an Ice Age Floods Trail follows the recommendations of a 2001
study headed by the National Park Service which found the area suitable for
addition into the National Park System.

This part of the bill carries a possible pricetag of $12 million, with $2 specifically for the visitor center. Though there's no way the trail would be done by this summer, Glacial Lake Missoula's geologic signatures will be some of the highlights planned for this summer's Regional Field Geology of the Northern Rockies class.

Read more about it in this article in the Missoulian.

Hat tip to Babak R. for letting me know about this.

Labels: glacial landforms, glaciation, lakes, montana, national parks, politics