Jamison recognized for conservation efforts around the North Fork

His first child was born in a cabin up the North Fork of the Flathead. One of his first assignments as a young journalist was howling with wolves with renowned wolf biologist Diane Boyd up the North Fork.

So yes, Michael Jamison has a soft spot for the North Fork. While he doesn’t live there full time, it still is home and he’s worked tirelessly over the years to make sure it stays one of the best backyard in the United States of America.

Earlier this month, the the North Fork Preservation Association named Jamison its Glacier National Park Stewardship Award recipient for 2022.

“Michael Jamison is a passionate, timeless, bold, thoughtful and fearless leader in the world of conservation in a universal sense. He literally knows no boundaries in his efforts. The North Fork wouldn’t be what it is today without him,” Flannery Coats Freund, President of NFPA said.

Jamison was instrumental in the passage of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act of  2014, the NFPA noted. He also helped direct conservation planning and funding throughout the Crown of the Continent. He's worked closely with Glacier National Park superintendents over the years on the whole host of Park issues - on  both sides of the Continental Divide and the border. He has forged deep relationships with Tribal leaders in Blackfeet country and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. He was also a key organizer of the Whitefish Range Partnership, which brought together a diverse group of interests, from loggers to environmentalists to come up with a balanced approach to future management of the Whitefish Range.

Most of the suggestions that came out of that collaborative process were eventually written into the 2018 Flathead National Forest plan.

Jamison takes little credit himself. He said he just likes being able to get diverse interests in the same room to talk about issues.

“There isn’t a single thing that has happened in the North Fork that didn’t involve a multigeneration community of people,” he said.


Jamison is a longtime Montana resident. He has a graduate degree in journalism from University of Montana and worked for several years at the Hungry Horse News as well as a reporter at the Missoulian for 14 years, focusing his coverage on the Glacier National Park region, providing an emphasis on natural resource/policy and science reporting. His reporting earned him numerous national awards recognizing his career contribution to writing about environmental and conservation history, and the interaction between people and landscapes. He is currently the Campaign Director for the National Parks Conservation Association’s Crown of the Continent initiative.

Jamison notes the North Fork is a special place, most notably because “you’re not on the top of the food chain. I enjoy that. It makes you feel like you’re living your life.”

For example, at any time, a person might run across a deer carcass while hiking that was taken down by a mountain lion that was run off by wolves and the wolves were run off by a grizzly and the coyote and ravens are now chewing on the scraps.

He said it was an honor to be recognized by people that are friends.

The award comes with a small stipend. Jamison said he’d like to use it to set a free bar tab so people could have a pint on him at the Home Ranch Bottoms Bar.

The Glacier National Park Stewardship Award is given out by the North Fork Preservation Association every couple of years to recognize the work of local conservationists and their commitment to the Crown of the Continent. The award was founded by Headwaters Montana and was formerly known as The Jack Potter Stewardship Award. Former recipients include Glacier Park biologist Lisa Bate, FWP biologist Tim Manley, Glacier Park ranger Brad Blickhan and conservationist Dave Hadden. If a person knows someone who deserves this recognition let NFPA know by visiting  www.gravel.org or by contacting any of its members listed on the website.