Page 28 - Flathead Beacon // 12.17.14

28 | DECEMBER 17, 2014
NEWS
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LANDS
Continued from page 5
Other Montana bills include: The Northern Cheyenne Lands Act, which returns mineral rights to the tribe cov- ering 5,000 acres of coal deposits within the reservation; the Grazing Improve- ment Act, which extends the life of graz- ing permits on federal lands from 10 to 20 years; and a measure that removes a law that prevents irrigation districts, in- cluding four in Montana, from develop- ing hydropower on Bureau of Reclama- tion canals and ditches.
All three delegates said the biparti- san cooperation and compromise that went into crafting the package is an ex- ample of how Congress should work.
“The significance of this cannot be understated. None of us came to Wash- ington to sit on our hands and obstruct,” Tester said. “We came to make this country a better place.”
The North Fork legislation received an outpouring of local support as groups have come together for decades urging its passage.
The bill has roots that reach back nearly 40 years, when the first Canadi- an coal mining proposals sought to tear down peaks in Glacier National Park’s headwaters.
In 2010, Montana reached an histor- ic accord with British Columbia’s lead- ership, pledging to together protect the wild and scenic region. The following year, Canadian lawmakers upheld their portion of the agreement by safeguard- ing lands north of the border.
“A century ago, Montanans showed extraordinary vision in successfully urging Congress to establish Glacier Na- tional Park; their foresight has been our great inheritance. Glacier has formed the center of our landscape and our economy, drawing the visitors and en- trepreneurs who keep our economies vi- brant with their investment in the park’s gateway communities,” said Michael Jamison, the National Parks Conserva- tion Association’s Glacier program man- ager. “There are places in this world de- serving of careful stewardship. Glacier National Park and the transboundary North Fork are among those irreplace- able treasures.”
Peter Aengst of the Wilderness So- ciety noted the significance of the tim- ing of the new wilderness protections, which come 50 years after passage of the Wilderness Act. He said he was proud of the Montana delegation for coming together to deliver on critical bills like
the North Fork and the Rocky Mountain Front, but said he did not agree with the removal of the wilderness study areas.
“While there some unsavory provi- sions in the package that the Wilderness Society opposed and we are disappoint- ed by the two WSAs released in eastern Montana, overall Montana and Amer- ica’s wildlands benefited significantly from this package,” he said.
Tester said he was disappointed that his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act was omitted from the package, a conces- sion he made to advance the other bills, but said that releasing the two wilder- ness study areas “was not the end of the world” as the parcels on the Bureau of Land Management had already been de- termined to have insufficient wilderness attributes. Still, the land had been man- aged as wilderness because Congress had not decided otherwise.
Some wilderness advocates were critical of the changes to the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act that re- leased and reassessed the BLM wilder- ness study areas.
“In Montana, with no public notice or meetings, Sen. Tester and Rep. Daines decided to release currently protected Wilderness Study Areas for develop- ment,” Matthew Koehler of WildWest Institute said in an email. “They also threw some Montana ranching families under the bus by giving Great Northern Properties 112 million tons of coal, which is equivalent to 3 years worth of all coal currently mined in Montana. For some wilderness perspective, the bill protects only 1 percent of the 6,397,000 acres of unprotected, wilderness-eligible road- less (land) in Montana. Nationally, these riders protect just 0.2 percent of unpro- tected Wilderness-eligible acres. This is no way to celebrate the 50th anniver- sary of the Wilderness Act or preserve America’s Wilderness legacy for wildlife and future generations.”
But Montana’s congressional leaders said balancing land protection and nat- ural resource opportunities was critical in sealing the deal.
All three delegates said the biparti- san cooperation and compromise that went into crafting the package is an ex- ample of how Congress should work, even as they clashed on many of the is- sues contained within the package.
“We didn’t get everything we wanted but it’s not the end of the world. I think it’s very unfortunate that we weren’t able to get my Forest Jobs and Recreation Act passed,” Tester said. “But together we got a lot of good done for Montana.”
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“THERE ARE PLACES IN THIS WORLD DESERVING OF CAREFUL STEWARDSHIP. GLACIER NATIONAL PARK AND THE TRANSBOUNDARY NORTH FORK ARE AMONG THOSE IRREPLACEABLE TREASURES.”
Michael Jamison