More oil, gas leases relinquished

Energy giant ConocoPhillips announced last week it would voluntarily relinquish oil and gas leases the company holds in the North Fork of the Flathead River drainage.

"This is a very big deal. I have worked towards this for 35 years, and now we are closer than ever to protecting the Flathead once and for all," Sen. Max Baucus said in a prepared release. "ConocoPhillips should be commended for this decision and their stewardship of this very unique, special place. Today, we are one step closer to ensuring that every Montanan, every American, and every Canadian who follows us will survey the North Fork and share our feeling of awestruck wonder that such a place still exists."

ConocoPhillips relinquished the leases Baucus said, at the request of his office and the Sen. Jon Tester's office.

"There are just some places that are too valuable to us, to our kids and to our grandkids to develop," Tester said in a prepared release. "The area next to Glacier National Park is one of them. I'm glad ConocoPhillips recognizes this and is voluntarily returning their leases to help protect this important landscape. It's good to have them as a partner in the effort to keep the upper Flathead watershed the way it's supposed to be."

The announcement came during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests hearing concerning Baucus and Tester's North Fork Watershed Protection Act of 2010.

Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association testified at the hearing on behalf of the bill, as did Chris Coughlin, co-owner of the Montana Raft Co. in West Glacier.

"This is an amazing thing to have happen for the North Fork," Hammerquist said. "It's an addition to the Park's legacy in our own time."

The ConocoPhillips announcement retires about 169,000 acres of leases. There's an additional 100,000 acres of leases that remain.

Hammerquist said he'd also like to see leases retired in the Middle Fork and on Big Mountain.

The Baucus and Tester legislation will prevent new oil and gas development and mining in the North Fork watershed.The bill, introduced on March 8, is in conjunction with similar measures in British Columbia. The legislation will put a moratorium on future leases on federal lands in the North Fork of the Flathead Drainage, which borders Glacier National Park.