Honored for protecting the Flathead

Erin Sexton, long recognized for her work in protecting rivers in Montana, likes to point out that the Flathead River is literally in her backyard.

“I can see the Middle Fork from my home in Hungry Horse,” she points out.

The research scientist at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station recently was awarded the 2012 Conservation Achievement Award by the Montana Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. Organized in 1870, AFS is the oldest professional society in North America dealing with natural resources.

Sexton credited her mentors and co-workers at the Biological Station, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Geological Survey.

“Their work to highlight the importance of the Transboundary (North Fork) Flathead for our native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout was critical in achieving protection in this watershed,” she told the Fisheries Society. “I have discovered that people are passionate about water quality and native trout, and that we are very lucky to share these rivers with our Canadian neighbors. The success in protecting the North Fork is a great achievement, and to preserve our fish and wildlife, there is still work to be done.”

Canadian coal

Sexton was recognized for her studies of impacts by open-pit, mountaintop-removal coal mining and coal bed methane development across the Canadian border in the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead River.

Plans to strip-mine coal in that part of British Columbia had been discussed since the 1970s and was the primary reason the Montana Legislature established the Flathead Basin Commission in 1983. Since then, threats to water quality by mining across the Canadian border have expanded to include drilling for coal bed methane and gold exploration.

Richard Hauer, a professor of limnology at UM’s Institute on Ecosystems and Sexton’s supervisor at the Biological Station, credited her swift response and her work to develop a solid foundation of science for stopping these mining developments in the North Fork’s headwaters.

“Erin has shown exemplary vision in her commitment to developing a long-term solution on the Flathead,” Hauer said. “She has remained resolute in her commitment to link the scientific results with management and policy.”

A first big step came in February 2010 when Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell signed a memorandum of understanding calling for a halt to coal mining, coal bed methane extraction, and gas and oil exploration in the transboundary area.

British Columbia followed up with its Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act in 2011, which prohibits coal mining as well as exploration and development of oil, gas and mineral resources on nearly 400,000 acres of land in the headwaters of the North Fork. By August 2012, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Nature Conservancy in the U.S. had raised $10 million to compensate mining interests in the area.

“Without Erin’s efforts, we believe this landmark conservation achievement would not have been realized,” said Clint Muhlfeld, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey based in Glacier National Park.

Science advocate

Sexton grew up in the Salt Lake City area and received bachelor’s degrees in biology and environmental studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Her undergraduate studies included field work on endangered birds in the Southwest and Hawaii.

She enrolled in graduate school at the University of Montana-Missoula in 2000 and wrote her master’s thesis on potential impacts to the Elk River, near Fernie, B.C., and the North Fork River by coal development in Canada.

“Five operating coal mines exist in the Elk River basin, with one more proposed by the Chinese,” she said. “All the mines want to expand, but they’ve been operating for decades there. Heavy metals have already leached into the watershed, resulting in toxic levels of selenium in the water and aquatic community. We need to understand the cumulative impacts of selenium, which bio-accumulates in the food chain.”

After completing her master’s in environmental studies in 2002, Sexton worked for several years on transboundary issues with the National Parks Conservation Association’s Glacier Park field representative, Steve Thompson, before landing a position at the Biological Station. By 2007, she had a contract with the Flathead Basin Commission.

Sexton traveled to the Elk River and North Fork watersheds to collect water quality and macroinvertebrate samples, and she helped organize data collected by fisheries biologists. That information was needed so agencies could make correct management decisions, she said.

The 2010 agreement reached by Schweitzer and Campbell was not totally surprising, Sexton said last week from Victoria, B.C., where she was meeting with parties on further transboundary agreements.

“The science was heading in a certain direction,” she pointed out.

She cited the importance of the United Nations’ mission to Glacier Park and the North Fork in 2009, which highlighted the Flathead as a globally significant landscape with world-class fisheries and wildlife.

Sexton told the Fisheries Society at their Feb. 7 meeting that her work is not done, that the “wonderful language” in the Schweitzer-Campbell memorandum needs to be implemented. Her current work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative” is part of that effort, she said.

Pursuing a Ph.D. is not out of the question, she said. Any Ph.D. study would include applied science, not just theoretical work — she said she wants to put data to good use and make a difference. While progress has been made on mining and drilling-related transboundary issues, “forestry issues were given a pass” in the Schweitzer-Campbell memorandum and need further study.

“Also, while I really enjoy my current work, with two young children now, I’m kind of maxed out right now,” she added.