Gathering celebrates North Fork protection near Glacier

In 2006, 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 the river during those decades.

On Thursday, the struggle finally came to an end as President Barack Obama signed the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. Tucked in the massive defense bill was the North Fork Watershed Protection Act that bans all future oil, gas and mining on about 430,000 acres of federal lands near Glacier Park in the North and Middle forks of the Flathead River.

On Friday about 50 people gathered at the Belton Chalet in West Glacier to celebrate the new law.

"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-it-iveness it wouldn't have happened," he told the crowd.

Jack Potter, a longtime North Forker and retired chief of science and management for Glacier Park, said the decades-long struggle had its tense moments. He recalled when wells were drilled at 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 Canadian neighbors that the United States is committed to conserving the watershed.

In a deal brokered by then-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 - held up the North Fork 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," Tester 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 still are 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 legislation does not affect private land.

The passage of the bills was a bipartisan effort. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., 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 & Lumber Co., 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 Friday, with many people hoping that more land use measures can be worked out in the coming years.

Tester said he plans to reintroduce 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. 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 U.S. 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, has come up with a 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 North Fork 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.

"We always look to zone our forests so we protect special places."

Jeff Mow, the current superintendent of Glacier, also expressed gratitude for the bill's passage.

"It's a great day for Glacier," he said. "It's a great day for the Crown of the Continent."