North Fork bill stalled in Senate

An attempt to pass the North Fork Watershed Protection Act in the U.S. Senate was turned back on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

The effort by Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., to bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote was stymied by a handful of Republicans, according to a news release from Walsh.

The measure, cosponsored in the Senate by Walsh and fellow Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, had passed unanimously out of the Senate Environment and Natural Resource Committee.

Early in March, the act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., passed the U.S. House.

The legislation essentially would protect national forest lands from oil, gas and mineral extraction but allow continued forest management in the North Fork Flathead River drainage. It is similar and reciprocal to action taken by the British Columbia provincial government in the Canadian North Fork.

“Today, the North Fork — and the thousands of Montanans working to protect it — fell victim to a few folks who can’t even find the Flathead River on a map,” Tester said in a news release Thursday. “Politics trumped good policy, hurting Montana’s economy and our outdoor heritage in the process.  The American people deserve better. I remain committed to working with Senator Walsh to get this done.”

Walsh had similar sentiments:

“The North Fork Watershed Preservation Act was built by Montanans and is supported by conservation groups, business leaders, and local officials, but two senators who have never seen the Crown of the Continent are holding it up. This is exactly what is wrong with Washington, D.C., and I invite my colleagues who objected to the bill to float the North Fork this spring and see why this bill is so important.  Our work to protect the North Fork doesn’t end today and our fight to do what’s right for Montanans will continue.”