Middle Fork corridor watchdog group to hold spring meeting

The Great Northern Environmental Stewardship Area group will hold their spring meeting at Grouse Mountain Lodge, in Whitefish, on Tuesday, June 24, from 1 to 5 p.m.

GNESA is a partnership of private landowners, citizens, businesses, corporations and government agencies with a presence or interest in the Middle Fork Flathead River Corridor, which runs from West Glacier to East Glacier between the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park. Diverse wildlife, a pristine river and vital transportation and utility routes contribute to the corridor’s importance.

The GNESA partners collaborate to provide effective stewardship and coordination of activities in a cooperative, mutually beneficial and non-regulatory manner. GNESA focuses its efforts on interagency coordination, facilitation, public education and effective communications.

Partners include BNSF Railway, Flathead National Forest, Glacier National Park, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Flathead Land Trust, Flathead Conservation District, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Montana Department of Transportation, Great Bear Foundation, Flathead County, Glacier County, The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Flathead Electric Cooperative, Qwest Communications, National Parks Conservation Association, Blackfeet Indian Nation, Lewis and Clark National Forest, and rafting or other tourist businesses that operate in the corridor.

Concerns about the corridor have included human-bear interactions, especially derailed grain trains and grizzly bear mortalities caused by collisions with trains and motor vehicles on U.S. 2; emergency communications in the corridor; wildfire hazards; and more recently potential impacts from derailed oil trains.

The June 24 day-long agenda begins with a presentation of the history of the group followed by talks on the nonprofit’s status, budget update and special projects; corridor wildlife mapping; electric fencing at the Essex green box site; a workshop on human-bear interactions at the railroad tracks in Banff, with a representative from Parks Canada; bear-proof Dumpsters in East Glacier; bear activity on the east side of the corridor by FWP biologist Mike Madel; a report by a BNSF Railway representative; and a question and answer session with the audience.

For more information, visit online at www.gnsa.org.