Tester claims North Fork bill being held up

Sen. Jon Tester claimed last week that the North Fork Watershed Protection Act was being held up by three Republican senators — Tom Cruz, of Texas, Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, and Pat Toomey, of Pennsylvania.

The Act, which would ban all future oil, mineral and gas leases on federal lands in the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead River, sailed through the Republican-controlled House last month on a voice vote. Republican Rep. Steve Daines sponsored the bill.

Tester claimed the three Senate Republicans holding up the bill want other federal lands opened for exploration if lands here are withdrawn. Tester noted that the Senate has different rules than the House, and it’s much easier for a few Senators to hold up legislation.

Cruz, Coburn and Toomey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tester made the remarks during a meeting in the Flathead last week with Sen. John Walsh and Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell.

Tester said he and Walsh would continue to work to get the bill passed, perhaps as a rider to a larger piece of legislation.

“We’ve got to figure out another bill we can attach this to,” Tester said.

Jewell said the Obama administration would look at implementing the ban administratively, although that would be done under the Secretary of Agriculture because the leases are on Forest Service lands.

“We’re on record supporting this legislation,” Jewell said. “This is a very important place to protect in perpetuity.”

Most energy companies that held leases in the drainage have already voluntarily relinquished them, but about 46,000 acres of leases remain, some right on the boundary of the Great Bear Wilderness in the Middle Fork.

Tester said the plan is to get the current bill passed and then deal with the remaining leaseholders later.

About 50 conservationists and members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Blackfeet Tribe spoke in favor of the bill during the meeting.

“We stand ready to help in anyway we can to get this passed,” said Richard Jeo, director of the Montana Nature Conservancy.

Members of the audience also brought up concerns about oil train traffic along the Middle Fork of the Flathead and the possibility of a spill.

Denny Gignoux, co-owner of Glacier Wilderness Guides, one of four raft companies with business on the Flathead River, said “it could be a huge travesty if something happened” to the watershed from a spill or through energy exploration.

Jewell urged listeners to contact lawmakers.

“Your voice matters,” she said. “It really does.”