Backyard diplomacy in North Fork deal

Sometimes, the best way to end a dispute isn't to call in the big shots. The trumpet blowers. The headline grabbers.

Sometimes the best way is to simply look over that fence and talk to your neighbor. Quietly. One-on-one. That's how Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said a decades-long dispute over mining in the Flathead was settled last week.

Schweitzer said he met with British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell some five years ago about the threats posed to the North Fork of the Flathead and Glacier National Park if Canadian interests went ahead with plans to mine coal and other minerals in the valley.

The conversations through the years have been cordial. Private.

Last week, the province, in an announcement that caught many observers by surprise, said it would place a moratorium on mining the Flathead.

"I want to give the overwhelming credit for this to Premier Campbell," Schweitzer told the Hungry Horse News last week, adding that he and Campbell kept the conversations through the years "on an even keel."

A memorandum of understanding between the province and the state was set to be signed Wednesday after the Hungry Horse News went to press. Schweitzer would not divulge details, but he was pleased with the result, saying it was one of "the most important things," he's ever been involved in, in his life.

In turn, the province has enacted a law called the "Flathead Watershed Area Order," that, in short, bans mining in the Canadian Flathead.

"Sometimes the best solution is when neighbors work things out over the fence, and that's what we've done," an emotional Schweitzer said.

The moratorium is a two-way street. While the Canadians are stopping mining on their side of the Flathead, the United States will do the same on its side.

There are more than 700 oil and gas leases on the U.S. side of the border that will eventually be retired as well. Those leases have been held in legal limbo since the mid 1980s.

Montana Sen. Jon Tester said Monday he supports retiring the leases on the U.S. side of the border and is working on legislation with Montana Sen. Max Baucus to get legislation written. Tester hadn't read the exact language, but he said it would require some funding.

Previously Baucus has passed legislation that retired leases on the Rocky