The 2018 winter North Fork Interlocal Agreement meeting will be held Wednesday, February 21 at the Glacier Park Community Center in West Glacier (not the Hungry Horse/Glacier View Ranger Station, as previously announced). Start time is 10:00 a.m. The meeting usually lasts abut three hours.
The Interlocal Agreement provides for face-to-face contact with representatives of agencies whose policies and actions affect the North Fork. Interlocal Agreement meetings are held in the winter (in town) and summer (at Sondreson Hall). Agency attendees include Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Montana Department of State Lands, U.S. Border Patrol, Glacier National Park, Flathead National Forest, U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service and Flathead County..
This is always a very interesting meeting, with reports from a range of government agencies and local organizations and often some quite vigorous discussion.
Historical note: Although the agreement wasn’t formally signed until 1985, this year marks the 35th anniversary of the first North Fork Interlocal meeting. Here’s what Larry Wilson had to say about it in 1987, some four years after things got rolling . . .
In the fall of 1983, the North Fork Improvement Association initiated meetings with the various state and federal agencies that are involved in management duties on the North Fork. Original meetings were designed for landowners to express their concerns about changes and threats to the area which is so special to all of us. I doubt that anyone involved in 1983 would have predicted the results.
Today, there is agreement among all of the government agencies as well as the three landowner organizations that it is necessary to look at the entire North Fork and the needs and desires of everyone when managing the area’s diverse resources. To further this goal the NFIA, North Fork Preservation Association, North Fork Compact, Flathead County, Montana Fish & Game, Montana Forestry, as well as the U.S. Forest Service, and Glacier National Park have signed an Inter Local Agreement which calls for two meetings of the group every year. One meeting is held at Sondreson Memorial Hall during the summer and the other is a winter meeting in the valley…