Tag Archives: Dave Hadden

Headwaters Montana Closes

Headwaters Montana Logo


Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, December 10, 2020
Contact:  Dave Hadden, Director, 406-270-3184/ info@headwatersmontana.org

Local Conservation Organization Closes
Establishes Wilderness Scholarship Fund and
Donates to Bigfork and Columbia Falls Conservation Projects

Local conservation organization Headwaters Montana will close its doors at the end of December after some 13 years of work in the Flathead and Kootenai regions advocating for wildlife and wilderness in land management decisions.

The Headwaters board voted in June to close the organization citing funding and other circumstances as the cause.

Board president Roger Sherman said that Headwaters Montana played a significant role in protecting the North Fork of the Flathead Rive from Canadian coal mine development in the early 200’s with passage of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act.  Headwaters marshaled bipartisan local support for the protection measures.

Headwaters also helped lower the temperature of the usually controversial Flathead Forest management plan revision process by initiating the Whitefish Range Partnership that brought diverse stakeholders to the table to resolve complex issues.  The final plan improved snowmobiling opportunities and recommended 80,000-acres of wilderness in the Whitefish Range, for example.

The organization also worked on a range of other conservation issues on the Kootenai National Forest, as well as the Kootenai River pollution from British Columbia, and helped develop alternate sources of funding for non-game wildlife in Montana, among many other issues.

As part of its closing Headwaters Montana has endowed the Loren Kreck and Edwin Fields Wilderness Scholarship Fund and the Jack Potter Glacier National Park Stewardship Fund.  Both funds will be managed by the North Fork Preservation Association (NFPA).

NFPA president Flannery Coats said her organization looks forward to carrying on some of the legacy work of Headwaters.  “Both these funds will help bring wilderness education and better natural resource management decisions to Montana in general and Glacier Park in particular,” Coats said.

In addition to these funds, Headwaters Montana made significant cash gifts to the Montana Land Reliance’s “Bigfork Natural Area Project”, and the Flathead Land Trust’s “Badrock Canyon Project.”

The Bigfork project hopes to build upon and expand the current trail system along the “Wild Mile” in Bigfork.  The Badrock Canyon Project seeks to protect about 800 outstanding acres along the Flathead River between Columbia Falls and Columbia Falls Heights.

“We’re really pleased to contribute to these two outstanding projects,” said Sherman.  “We hope our donation will inspire others to contribute.”

To learn more about the Wilderness Scholarship Fund or Glacier Park Stewardship Award contact Flannery Coats at 406-407-3863.  Contact Mark Schiltz at 406-837-2178 at the Montana Land Reliance regarding the Bigfork Natural Area Project, and Paul Travis at 406-261-4357 at the Flathead Land Trust for the Badrock Canyon Project.

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Headwaters Montana will close doors at end of 2020

Announcement from NFPA President Debo Powers:

Headwaters Montana has been a sister organization to NFPA for decades and Dave Hadden has been one of the most effective conservation advocates of all time in both local and transboundary issues.  We are sorry to see Headwaters Montana close, but we are excited about continuing the Jack Potter Glacier National Park Stewardship Award and the Loren Kreck-Edwin Fields Wilderness Scholarship Fund. (See details below.)

Here’s the full text of the announcement from Headwaters Montana . . .

Headwaters Montana LogoHeadwaters Montana announces with mixed emotion our board of director’s decision to close our conservation organization by the end of 2020. We want to extend our profound gratitude to all of you who have supported and followed our work. Our successes year after year would have been impossible without your moral and financial support. So, Thank You! We are grateful!

Briefly, we decided to close for several concurrent reasons. First, as executive director I am retiring at the end of the year. Second, our long-tern “President for Life” Edwin Fields passed away in February and the board thinks this event in combination with my retirement is a signal to bring things to a close. And lastly, Headwaters does not have the financial capacity to bring in my replacement; we simply can’t afford to continue

Founded in 2007, Headwaters has filled an important niche in the northwest Montana conservation landscape. We have specialized in working on issues not covered by other local groups. Trout groups, wildlife groups, bird groups, open land groups, smart growth groups, lake groups, and other groups all exist in the Flathead and Kootenai regions. Headwaters has functioned as the only local grassroots groups that works on long-term conservation goals of protecting water and wildlife across the transboundary frontier with British Columbia, a critical conservation corridor.

Our particular focus on transboundary issues with British Columbia included protecting the North Fork of the Flathead River Valley from coal mining in the BC headwaters that culminated in the North Fork Watershed Protection Act of 2014.

More recently, we have focused on protecting water and fish in the Kootenai River system from the degradation due to mountaintop removal coal mining in BC’s Elk River Valley. We worked to protect the threatened terrestrial wildlife habitat across this transboundary landscape, including the wild core of the Whitefish Range in the Flathead National Forest, the remaining roadless lands in the Canadian Flathead and the Kootenay. (In the U.S. we spell “Kootenai” and in Canada they spell “Kootenay”.) Our work with partners has resulted in millions of dollars for transboundary water quality studies that will lay the groundwork for holding BC accountable for its pollution.

One of the keys to our success has been our willingness to work with almost any stakeholder interested in finding solutions to big problems in open and transparent fashion. The Whitefish Range Partnership exemplified this approach, which we conceived and helped lead over 2012-13. This group of about 30 local citizens and stakeholders met for a year to hammer out a community consensus agreement on a suite of management recommendations for the Whitefish Range as part of the Flathead National Forest management plan revision affecting over 400,000 acres and including an 80,000-acre recommended wilderness.

Similarly, over 2017-19 we pulled together 13 statewide and national groups to form the Montana Wildlife Futures Group that significantly advanced the efforts to find permanent additional funding for non-game wildlife in Montana. We led the Oil Safe Flathead effort to draw attention to the risks and need for action regarding the shipment of Bakken crude oil and other hazardous material along the BNSF rail line running along the Middle Fork Flathead and through West Glacier, Columbia Falls, and Whitefish. We helped the North Fork Trail Association get started as part of citizen effort to help maintain national forest trails.

Around the edges Headwaters Montana accomplished other goals. We are happy to report that the Jack Potter Glacier National Park Stewardship Award, which we created in 2012, will be passed to the North Fork Preservation Association (NFPA). Headwaters will endow this award so that citizens, public employees and non-profit groups will continue to be recognized and rewarded for their effort to protect Glacier Park.

Lastly, when a non-profit closes, it is required by IRS rules to disperse remaining assets to other 501-c-3 non-profits. In 2010, our dear friend and benefactor, Dr. Loren Kreck, bequeathed a substation gift to Headwaters. In addition, the family of Edwin Fields, our recently deceased “President for Life,” will make a gift to Headwaters. We are pleased to announce that the Headwaters board has established the Loren Kreck – Edwin Fields Wilderness Scholarship Fund. This fund will provide educational assistance grants to graduate students with a focus on wilderness advocacy. Once again, the NFPA board has agreed to adopt and manage this scholarship as Headwaters closes its doors.

In closing, we would like to again say, “Thank You!” for your years of support. Our successes are indeed your successes.

Dave Hadden: North Fork bill caught up in Montana politics

Well, this is a bit of a coup. If the following piece just posted to the Hungry Horse News looks familiar, that’s because you read it first in the recent NFPA Summer Newsletter.

Anyways, here is Dave Hadden’s take on the damage election year political posturing is doing to even the most broadly supported legislation . . .

Didn’t we all think that the international effort to protect the North Fork Flathead River from coal mining was all but done in 2013?

British Columbia had passed legislation in 2011 banning mining and energy development north of the border. And or the first time in some 20 years, Montana’s congressional delegation all supported a piece of conservation legislation — the North Fork Watershed Protection Act. The stars had finally aligned after 38 years of local, a-political effort to protect the North Fork.

Regretfully, it was not to be.

Read more . . .

Dave Hadden: It all makes sense from up here

Dave Hadden, Executive Director of Headwaters Montana, spent some time in the Canadian Flathead a short time ago. Here are his thoughts, written as he was on the summit of Mount Haig in the Canadian Rockies . . .

I’m sitting atop Mount Haig in the Canadian Rockies, just 30 miles (48km) from the Montana border and Glacier National Park. In front of me, the broken limestone and shale shards descend in sweeping arcs until they merge with ridge lines that go on forever. Behind me, very close behind me, my seat drops away vertically 2,000 feet to a jewel-like turquoise lake. I could be on top of Siyeh Peak in Glacier, but I’m not. I’m sitting on the highest peak in the proposed new Flathead National Park.

From up here you can see how the land fits together. How a grizzly bear and her cubs might tumble out of their winter den and find security in the high, carved cirque basin to my right from the instincts of male bears or the disturbance of human activities. How the green blush of a new year’s flowering moves up the valleys and canyon walls. How the returning winged-ones find willows and cottonwoods along the Flathead River and tributary creeks or in the tall spruce and pine to regenerate the song-filled air.

Continue reading . . .

Dave Hadden to give Audubon presentation about North Fork

Dave Hadden of Headwaters Montana will be talking to the Flathead Audubon Society on Monday about the North Fork . . .

Dave Hadden of Headwaters Montana will update Flathead Audubon members Monday of efforts to preserve the North Fork of the Flathead River. Audubon will meet at 7 p.m. in the Community Room of The Summit, 205 Sunnyview Lane, in Kalispell. All are welcome.

Hadden, director of Headwaters Montana, will describe the effort to increase the size of Waterton Lakes National Park, the status of Senate Bill 233 called the “North Fork Watershed Protection Act of 2012” introduced by Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, and explain why this area is a vital wildlife corridor.

Continue reading . . .

Partnering to protect the Transboundary Flathead watershed

Dave Hadden, director of Headwaters Montana, Robin Steinkraus, executive director of the Flathead Lakers and Will Hammerquist, program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association’s Glacier Field Office have a nice commentary piece in today’s Flathead Beacon . . .

Here in Montana, August brings us the county fair and farm harvests. And this year we also celebrate a harvest of victories for Glacier National Park, the North Fork Flathead River and Flathead Lake. In addition to commemorating Glacier’s first 100 years, citizens from across the Montana-British Columbia border, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester did yeoman’s work to protect this special place.

Read the full article . . .

Protecting the North Fork must be a team effort

Dave Hadden, Executive Director of Headwaters Montana, had a letter to the editor published in today’s Flathead Beacon . . .

The North Fork of the Flathead River (a.k.a. the Transboundary Flathead) continues to play in the news of late. The news media report that Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester are at odds over how to best protect our river, Glacier Park and Flathead Lake from upstream industrial activity. While a bit confusing to the reader, we think it’s important to keep the North Fork in the news for one simple reason: Our fabulous North Fork ain’t protected yet.

Read the complete letter . . .