Here’s the Daily Inter Lake’s write-up on last Tuesday’s public open house to discuss the North Fork Road corridor study draft. If for no other reason, it’s worth reading for Flathead County Commissioner Jim Dupont’s pragmatic comments . . .
To pave or not to pave may not be the question.
Due to lack of money, Flathead County Commissioner Jim Dupont said the long-talked-about paving of the North Fork Road will not likely happen anytime soon unless the federal government decides to pay for it.
This week’s Hungry Horse News has a good summary of last Tuesday’s public open house to discuss the North Fork Road corridor study draft.
Note that public comments are due by August 10. Send e-mail to mdtnffrteam@mt.gov or write to Lani Eggertsen-Goff, PB 488 E. Wincester Street, Suite 400, Murray, UT 84107. The draft corridor study can be viewed online at http://www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/northfork/. (Warning! Some big files.)
Here’s the lead-in from the HHN write-up . . .
The public was invited to give comment at the North Fork Flathead Road meeting Tuesday, July 27, which will be entered as part of the final Corridor Study Document.
At the meeting, representatives from Parsons Brinckerhoff — the group commissioned to conduct the study — answered questions.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee released the final report of the scientific mission study of threats to Waterton-Glacier Park. A press release posted to the Flathead Wild website has the highlights . . .
A report commissioned by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is calling for a “conservation and wildlife management plan” for the transboundary Flathead and a new management plan for the Flathead River Valley that “gives priority to natural ecological values and wildlife conservation.”…
The 50-page report, released today at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Brasilia, recommends:
- A new B.C. Southern Rocky Mountains Management Plan “that gives priority to natural ecological values and wildlife conservation.”
- Taking steps to minimize barriers to wildlife connectivity, including a long-term moratorium on further mining developments in south eastern B.C., including in the Elk Valley, “in the corridor of natural terrain that creates vital habitat connectivity and allows the unimpeded movement of carnivores and ungulates” between Waterton-Glacier and Canada’s Rocky Mountains national parks.
- A single conservation and wildlife management plan for the transboundary Flathead.
- Inscription of Waterton-Glacier on the list of World Heritage in Danger if development of the proposed Lodgepole coal strip mine had proceeded (the B.C. government banned Flathead mining and energy development in February 2010 after receiving a draft copy of the mission report).
For those of you who prefer to get your information directly from source documents, we’ve made the full report available for direct viewing/download (50 pages, PDF format, 2MB).
Dr. Charles Jonkel, President and co-founder of the Great Bear Foundation was named the 2005 Conservationist of the year. The award honored his work in establishing the International Wildlife Film Festival in 1977, 30 plus years pioneering ways to improve the quality of wildlife television and, not least, for his 45 (now 50 years) of conducting bear research around the world. Also recognized were Jonkel’s roles in developing the methodology of bear research, establishing the first concepts of modern bear management and his election as President of the International Bear Biology Association.
Jonkel’s bear research efforts started in 1959 with the commercial availability of the dart gun. He has been around for an exceptionally long time and has much yet to accomplish.
Dr. Jonkel will be speaking at the annual meeting of the North Fork Preservation Association at 7:30 pm at the Sondreson Community Hall at Whale Creek, preceded by a potluck at 5pm and business meeting at 6:30 pm.
Chuck’s birthday is July 16. Join NFPA at the annual meeting and celebrate his 80th birthday.
Here’s a pretty good article on Chip Weber, the new Flathead National Supervisor, from Thursday’s Daily Inter Lake . . .
Chip Weber has a diverse background and broad interests in forest management, all of which should be helpful for the new supervisor of the Flathead National Forest.
Weber came to the Flathead about two months ago after five years as a district ranger on the Willamette National Forest in Oregon . . .
Here’s some more information on the upcoming public meeting on the North Fork Road corridor study from yesterday’s Daily Inter Lake . . .
An open-house-style meeting has been scheduled for the public to review and give comments on the corridor study of a portion of the North Fork Road.
The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 27, at the Discovery Center at 540 Nucleus Ave., Columbia Falls. As an open-house style meeting, no formal presentation will be given.
According to a post on the Flathead Wild site today, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee report on threats to Waterton-Glacier Park and its environs will be released at the committee’s meeting in Brasilia, which begins tomorrow.
We’ll provide access to the report once it becomes available.
BP is selling off a number of assets world-wide to raise money to pay for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, including their Mist Mountain coalbed methane project near Fernie, BC. As long-time readers may recall, BP originally intended coalbed methane development in the Canadian Flathead as well, but pulled out of that region in response to public outcry. Presumably, the new owner, Apache Corporation, will continue to honor this restriction.
More reading . . .
BP sells Fernie coal bed methane project to Apache Corp (the Fernie Free Press)
BP shops assets to cover oil spill costs (Reuters)
According to an email sent out yesterday afternoon by Pam Murray of PB Americas, the draft North Fork Road corridor study document is now available online and, for those of you traveling down-valley, on paper. (If you came late to the party, the corridor study is a $125K project looking at alternatives for improving the condition of the North Fork Road from Blankenship Road to Camas Junction.)
Ms. Murray said,
The draft corridor study document is now available for your review, please visit the website: http://www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/northfork/documents.shtml and if the link does not work you can find the document by going to the study webpage at http://www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/northfork/ From the menu on the left go to “documents” and then clicking section by section on the draft document.
The whole document is available as one file, however it is a very large file (over 20 M) and will probably time out for most people before the download is complete.
Paper copies of the draft corridor study document are also available at these locations:
- The Columbia Falls Library, 130 6th Street West
- Flathead County Offices, 800 South Main Street, Kalispell
- MDT Office, 85 5th Ave East North, Kalispell
Please review the draft corridor study document. We also invite you to attend the public meeting on July 27, 2010 at Discovery Square, Sperry Auditorium anytime between 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm…
The purpose of the public meeting is to receive your comments on the draft corridor study document. If you are unable to attend the meeting next week you can provide us comments on the draft corridor study document using the “comment on this study” link from the study webpage (see above link).
Additional information…
The entire current set of documents discussing the corridor study includes:
The following poster includes more information about the meeting on July 27th. Note this little item near the bottom: “For reasonable accommodations to participate in the meeting, please contact Paul Grant at 406/444.9415 at least two days before the meeting.” In other words, if you want to get up and say something, call ahead.
From today’s Flathead Beacon . . .
Accepting the Flathead Lakers’ 2010 Stewardship Award for signing an agreement with British Columbia protecting the North Fork from mining and drilling, Gov. Brian Schweitzer gave much of the credit to his counterpart in the negotiations: Premier Gordon Campbell.
Describing the fragile talks, held secretly in Spokane, Schweitzer emphasized that – from mining royalties to political capital – it was Campbell who had the most at stake.