The Missoulian covered yesterday’s visit to the North Fork by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar with a nice write-up and about five minutes of video. Here’s the lead-in . . .

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, on a swing through Montana to highlight water issues, came to the North Fork on Tuesday to see the confluence where the South, Middle and North forks join to make the Flathead River. But the crowd milling below Blankenship Bridge, about 10 miles north of Columbia Falls, kept him from water’s edge.

Finally Salazar linked arms with Democratic Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Then, turning to Baucus, who has fought upstream development for decades, Salazar said, “Show me your river, Max.”

The North Fork Flathead is not, of course, Max’s river; but it has run steadily through the senator’s political career, countless gallons of wild and scenic water under Baucus’ bridge.

Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]