Power agency to give tribes $3.49 million to buy land

For the first time, the Bonneville Power Administration and the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes have reached an agreement that provides the tribes with $3.49 million for conservation land purchases to mitigate for damages caused by construction of Hungry Horse Dam.

A memorandum of agreement, effective May 1, will provide for tribal land purchases, with BPA receiving conservation easements for each parcel that is purchased, according to a Bonneville press release.

Tribal attorney Joe Hovenkotter said that in negotiations for the agreement, the tribes provided a list of 23 "candidate properties," nearly all them with streams running through them and some of them on the shores of Flathead Lake.

"The tribes will proceed immediately, working on this list of candidate properties to negotiate with landowners for the purchase of these properties at fair market value," Hovenkotter said.

"When the tribes acquire the title, we will be obligated to provide a conservation easement to the Bonneville Power Administration to ensure the protection of fish and wildlife habitat for perpetuity," Hovenkotter explained.

Other tribes in the Columbia Basin have negotiated similar agreements aimed at providing more habitat for wildlife and fish. This is the first time that the Salish-Kootenai tribes have negotiated such an agreement with BPA.

"I don't know if it's historic, but it certainly is significant," Hovenkotter said, noting that the tribes intend to negotiate with BPA for similar agreements in the future.

The incentive for BPA to pursue the agreements is to meet its obligation to mitigate for environmental impacts that resulted from construction of federal hydroelectric projects throughout the Columbia River Basin.

In the Flathead River Basin, mitigation efforts are aimed at making up for the loss and degradation of fish and wildlife habitat when Hungry Horse Dam was built, inundating the South Fork Flathead River valley upstream from the dam.

Through a complicated process, those impacts have been quantified, and BPA must gradually earn mitigation credits. BPA is "working against that injury assessment that measured impacts caused by inundation of the South Fork," Hovenkotter said.

The tribes are involved in the mitigation process because they are recognized by the federal government as a trustee for fish and wildlife.

The tribes "reserve that right to protect fish and wildlife throughout their aboriginal territory" under terms of the 1855 Hellgate Treaty, Hovenkotter said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com