North Fork Act doesn't dissolve existing leases

The North Fork Watershed Protection Act passed the House on a voice vote last week — one step closer to becoming law — but the act doesn’t address existing leases in the drainage, some of which are right on the edge of the Great Bear Wilderness.

The act only prohibits any new energy leases in the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead River.

All told, energy companies once held about 246,000 acres of leases in the North and Middle Forks of the Flathead. Since the bill was introduced by former Montana Sen. Max Baucus a few years ago, several companies, including Conoco-Phillips, relinquished their claims.

About 200,000 acres of claims were permanently relinquished, leaving a little more than 46,000 acres of leases on the books. Most of those leases are held by Devon Energy, of Oklahoma City, Okla.

Devon Energy spokesman Chip Minty said last week the company has no plans to drill here. He said the company’s focus is on its holdings in Texas and Oklahoma and work in the tar sands area of Alberta.

Four other leaseholders are William Jeffers and William Jeffers Sr., Antoco Petro Corp., the Beverly Lasrich Trust and Credo Petroleum.

According to maps made for Baucus last year, current leases are located in the southern end of the North Fork Valley and along the Middle Fork of the Flathead. The Middle Fork leases often butt up against the Great Bear Wilderness.

There is some question whether the current leases are valid. Development of the leases was challenged years ago.

In 1986, Kalispell resident James Conner sued the Bureau of Land Management claiming it couldn’t sell leases on Forest Service land without first going through an environmental impact statement or preparing a complete biological opinion.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Conner in 1988, saying the Forest Service needed to complete an EIS before any development could begin. An EIS was never completed, and the leases have been in legal limbo ever since.