Groups celebrate North Fork Act

In 2006, then Glacier National Park Superintendent Mick Holm went to Canada to meet with British Petroleum officials, who were considering coal bed methane gas development in the Flathead.

“They tried to convince us they were a green company,” Holm recalled. “We tried to convince them the right thing to do was to not do anything.”

That was one was of many battles over the future of the North Fork of the Flathead in the past 40 years. Hundreds of people have advocated for one of the finest rivers on the planet in those decades.

On Dec. 18, the struggle finally came to an end as President Obama signed the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. Tucked in the massive defense bill was the North Fork Watershed Protection Act, a one-page bill that bans all future oil, gas and mining on about 430,000 acres of federal lands in the North and Middle Forks of the Flathead River.

On Dec. 19 about 50 stakeholders gathered to celebrate the bill’s passage into law at the Belton Chalet.

“It’s just a flat out great day,” said Sen. Jon Tester, the Democratic co-sponsor of the bill. Tester said the legislation passed because of the dedication of generations of Montanans.

“Without your stick-to-itiveness it wouldn’t have happened,” he told the crowd.

Jack Potter, a longtime North Forker and retired chief of science and management said the decades-long struggle had its tense moments. He recalled when wells were drilled in the Rocky-Bar-O Ranch just south of Polebridge. The wells didn’t pan out, but “that was a time of consternation.”

Former Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright said passage of the Act demonstrates to our Canadian neighbors that the U.S. is committed to conserving the watershed.

Brokered by former Gov. Brian Schweitzer in 2010, British Columbia agreed to ban energy exploration in the drainage and codified it into law in 2011, but the U.S. effort lagged behind.

Last year, three Republican Senators — Tom Cruz of Texas, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania all held up the legislation when Tester and Sen. John Walsh tried to get the measure passed as a one-page bill.

Rolling the legislation into the Defense Act meant they couldn’t stop the bill this time around.

“They didn’t have the votes to pull it out,” he said. The bill had more than 80 land use provisions nationwide, including another key Montana provision, the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, which adds 67,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex and protects another 208,000 acres as a conservation area.

There’s still work to be done in the North and Middle Forks, however. The Watershed Act doesn’t eliminate existing leases. Most companies voluntarily relinquished their leases years ago, but there’s still about 15,000 acres of leases still held by companies.

“We’ll keep working. We’ll keep trying to find ways to (retire) those,” Tester said.

The passage of the bills was a bi-partisan effort. Rep. Steve Daines, a Republican, carried the bill in the House. It was that effort which left people optimistic about future legislation.

Chuck Roady, general manager for F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber said he supported the bill.

“We really appreciate the effort,” he said. “Let’s hope (Congress) follows your example. We’re glad to see things get done.”

Collaboration was the theme of the day, with many people hopeful that more land use measures can be worked out in the coming years. Tester said he plans on reintroducing the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act in the next session. That bill blends timber production, new wilderness and other land management designations across hundreds of thousands of acres in Montana as well. Like the North Fork Act before it, it was a collaborative effort, as industry and environmental groups came together to hammer out a deal.

Land management decisions in the North Fork will be coming from the Forest Service in the next couple of years, as the Flathead National Forest writes a new Forest plan.

The Whitefish Range Partnership, a collaborative group that included Stoltze and a wide variety of interests, have come up with an agreed upon plan that recommends new wilderness in the north end of the drainage, as well as timber uses in the southern end.

For Flathead National Forest Supervisor Chip Weber, the passage of the Act makes managing the region a better process.

“Having that support makes our job of conservation easier,” he said. While some Forest Service lands may be suitable for energy exploration, others are not, Weber said.