By many accounts, there have been profound ecological improvements on the Flathead River over the last decade, but there remains an array of persistent threats to the river system and Flathead Lake.

Don't forfeit gains made on river

It was 10 years ago when the federal government made one of its wiser investments in a $6.5 million upgrade at Hungry Horse Dam that allowed water temperatures to be controlled in the river below.

It's fairly obvious that the "selective withdrawal" system at Hungry Horse has benefited a fishery that had been degraded to a point of mediocrity.

Providing stable temperatures through the summer was a big change from four decades of subjecting the river to repeated shocks of water from the deepest, coldest levels of Hungry Horse Reservoir.

Biologists and anglers have been seeing benefits not only from the temperature-control technology, but also from tighter fishing regulations and significant changes in the way water releases are managed at Hungry Horse Dam.

These practical policies and expenditures are the types that government agencies charged with natural resource management should strive for - measures that have an impact.

The public wants action on the ground rather than the type of legalistic bureaucracy that drives the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to spend a large chunk of its budget on "critical habitat" designations.

Improvements on the Flathead River are a great example of what can happen.

But all is not well.

There is, it seems, an open-ended potential for coal and coal bed methane mining in Canada that could have a direct environmental impact on the North Fork Flathead River, which flows to the main-stem river and on to Flathead Lake.

There is also an ever-present demand for water far downstream in the Columbia River Basin to benefit salmon. So far, Montana has managed to work out palatable compromises with downstream interests, but who knows what the future holds in an era when federal judges are making the most important water management decisions in the Columbia Basin.

And scientists at the University of Montana Biological Station at Yellow Bay have long warned about impacts from persistent development pressures on the Flathead Valley's shallow aquifer.

Being aware of potential problems and striving for practical solutions should be a high priority for our political leaders and government agencies.

Gains made on the Flathead River over the last decade should not be forfeited in the future.