Supporters hail passage of North Fork bill

A lot has changed since 2006, when Glacier National Park superintendent Mick Holm traveled north to Canada to meet with British Petroleum officials who were considering coal bed methane gas development in the Flathead River drainage.

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

That was one of many battles over the future of the North Fork of the Flathead over the past 40 years. The struggle finally came to an end on Dec. 18 as President Obama signed the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act.

Tucked inside the giant 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 Fork and Middle Fork areas of the Flathead River.

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

“It’s just a flat out great day,” said Sen. Jon Tester, the bill’s Democratic co-sponsor.

The legislation passed because of the dedication of generations of Montanans, he said.

“Without your stick-to-it-tive-ness, it wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

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

Former Park superintendent Chas Cartwright said passage of the act demonstrates to Canada that the U.S. is committed to conserving the watershed.

In an understanding brokered by Gov. Brian Schweitzer in 2010, British Columbia agreed to ban energy exploration in the drainage. The ban was codified it into law in 2011, but a corresponding U.S. effort lagged behind.

Last year, Republican Sens. Tom Cruz of Texas, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania held up the one-page bill. Rolling the bill into the Defense Act made it difficult for the three to stop the bill this time.

“They didn’t have the votes to pull it out,” Tester said.

The Defense Act contained more than 80 land use provisions nationwide, including 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.

The North Fork Watershed Act, however, doesn’t eliminate existing energy leases. Most leases were voluntarily relinquished several years ago, but about 15,000 acres are still leased to energy companies.

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

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

F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. general manager Chuck Roady 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.”

Tester said he plans on reintroducing his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act in the next session, a bill that blends timber production, new wilderness and other land management designations across hundreds of thousands of acres in Montana. Like the North Fork Watershed Act, the measure grew out of a collaborative effort, with industry and environmental groups working together to hammer out a deal.

Future land management decisions in the North Fork will be coming from the Flathead National Forest with an updated Forest Plan. Forest supervisor Chip Weber said passage of the North Fork Watershed Act will improve the land management 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.

“We always look to zone our forests so we protect special places,” he said.