This excellent article on the history and current health of Flathead Lake appeared in the Wednesday, March 29, 2006 online edition of the Bigfork Eagle. There is also discussion of risks to lake water quality, including mining and coalbed methane development in the transboundary North Fork . . .
Flathead Lake water is some of the cleanest in the world according to Dr. Jack Stanford, director of the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station at Yellow Bay.
Stanford addressed a crowd of Flathead Valley citizens Sunday in the latest John White Series talk offered by the Northwest Montana Historical Society at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell.
Stanford's lecture "Flathead Lake: Purity on the Edge" provided a glimpse of the past, present and future health of Flathead Lake. A summary of nearly 30 years of biological station research presented a marvelous yet sobering understanding of the most prominent challenges and threats to the lake, as well as the multitude of natural dynamics that support the lake's high water quality.
Read the entire article . . .