Senators back North Fork legislation

Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester reintroduced legislation Thursday aimed at protecting Montana’s North Fork Flathead River drainage from mining and oil and gas development.

The North Fork Watershed Protection Act does not impede timber production, hunting or fishing and continues to have broad support of Montana businesses and conservation groups, according to the two Democratic senators.

Baucus and Tester have successfully negotiated the return of more than 200,000 lease acres held by energy companies in the North Fork, about 80 percent of the total leased acreage.

The legislation is aimed at securing the remaining acreage.

Michael Jamison, Glacier program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, praised the legislation.

He noted that it has been two years since Canadians protected lands in the British Columbia portion of the North Fork from mining and oil and gas development.

“We Montanans shook hands on a good-faith deal to protect the shared transboundary region, and this bill shows we’re honest about upholding our end of the bargain,” Jamison said.

The bill does not cost taxpayers and preserves all private property rights, but it does protect a major watershed that feeds Flathead Lake.