North Fork Preservation Association

That the Polebridge Mercantile, full of food and coffee and people, has not fallen derelict here so far from the grid, so close to the Canadian line, is testament to the vision of Kaufman and her husband, Dan, as well as to their remarkable baking skills. But it’s time now, Kaufman said, for another adventure, up yet another road into the unknown.

His first impulse was to run, to turn tail and never look back at that ramshackle stack of logs the real estate agent kept calling a cabin.

A few months ago, someone noticed that the northforkhostel.com web address actually pointed to the web site of a competitor, the Home Ranch Bottoms.

She calls him

William P. Foley II pointed to the mountain. Owns it, mostly. A timber company began logging in view of his front yard a few years back. He thought they were cutting too much, so he bought the land.

The Whitefish City Council learned Oct. 1 about the idea of a joint resolution between Whitefish and Fernie, British Columbia, urging Gov. Brian Schweitzer and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell to meet and discuss “transboundary issues” — that is, potential impacts to the Flathead River by coal-mining upstream in Canada.

High in the mountain wilderness of Glacier National Park, far from the modern world’s smokestacks and industries, pristine has officially been downgraded.

U.S. and Canadian officials plan to meet this month in Paris to discuss how an international park on their border could be protected from a proposed coal mine nearby.

Everyone from high school students to community groups are getting involved in air quality study in the Flathead Valley, as testing for one University of Montana study ends and another begins.

The nation’s top-level land managers are looking to meet with their Canadian counterparts in France later this month to discuss controversial mining projects planned upstream of Glacier National Park.