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Dear NFPA membership,
It is with some grief and extra caution that I write to inform you all that the NFPA Board has decided it is most appropriate to change our Annual Meeting to a Zoom format given the intensity of the COVID case load in the Flathead. Sally Thompson, our speaker, will take a rain check and deliver her much anticipated presentation next year.
So, instead, we invite you to join us on October 2 for a short business meeting and some exciting organizational updates (including the introduction of our first scholarship recipient) at 5:45pm followed by a photographic journey through the expansive public lands of our great state of Montana by past president, Debo Powers at 6:30pm.
We look forward to “seeing” you all from the comfort of your homes next weekend. You’ll find an online meeting attendance link below . . .
On behalf of the Board and until we meet again,
Flannery Coats, President
North Fork Preservation Association
To join the Zoom meeting . . .
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86754007192?pwd=MVdLVHpNbmhyV3NsdFpMdzBING52dz09
Hello friends of the North Fork Preservation Association!
JOIN US!
For the NFPA Annual Meeting
Saturday, July 31 at Sondreson Community Hall
Our speaker this year is
Sally Thompson who co-wrote People Before the Park: The Kootenai and Blackfeet before Glacier National Park.
We would love for you to be among our honored guests.
5:30pm: Potluck supper
6:45pm: Short business meeting to elect officers and members of the Board of Directors and report on the work of NFPA
7:30pm: Speaker
We are excited to spend an evening with all of you, share with you what we’ve been up to, and look forward to a great presentation.
NOTE: The Hay Creek Fire is active in the North Fork. We do not at this time expect it to interfere with our meeting. Of course, wildland fires do not always behave as expected. For information on the Hay Creek Fire, monitor InciWeb at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7712/. More frequent, community-related bulletins can be found on the NFLA site: https://nflandowners.org/.
Several horrific bills were passed by the 2021 Montana Legislature that will harm wolves and grizzly bears! These include significant reduction of the wolf population through neck snaring, longer seasons, hunting at night with spotlights, larger bag limits, bounties, etc. These proposed changes are based on the angry emotions of a few legislators, and prohibit MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) from being able to reasonably manage wolves and bears based on the best science available. The FWP Commission will be voting on these proposed detrimental changes in August. We have until 5pm on July 26 to get comments to our commissioners against these disastrous new laws. Please comment before July 26! In your letter, please recommend “Option 1—Limited New Tools.” For more information & online comment submission go to: https://fwp.mt.gov/hunt/public-comment-opportunities and click on 2021 WOLF SEASON. You can also email the individual commissioners at:
Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission members
Hi, folks.
The Summer 2021 Interlocal Agreement Meeting is at 1:00pm, on Wednesday, July 14 at Sondreson Community Hall. This summer’s Interlocal is hosted by the North Fork Preservation Association (NFPA). It follows the annual Firewise meeting at 9:30am. Lunch is at noon, with the NFPA providing the main course. If you wish, bring a side dish or desert to share.
For those of you who are new to this, Interlocal meetings are held twice each year, winter and summer. These semi-annual get-togethers are intended to encourage open discussion between North Fork landowners and neighbors, and local, state and federal agencies. In other words, it’s a big deal if you have an interest in the North Fork.
As a convenience (it’s not required), I’m serving as a central point of contact for issues that North Fork organizations and individuals would like to see addressed by the various government agencies represented at the meeting. If you’ll send me your issues by the afternoon of Tuesday, June 29, I’ll pass them on to the various organizations in enough time for them to prepare their presentations. (Note: Please do not respond via Facebook. Use my email address, wkwalker@nvdi.com.)
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
Bill
UPDATE: The NFPA’s comments on this issue were submitted to the Forest Service on April 29. Read them here. Or visit the “Official Comments” page.
The Flathead National Forest is seeking public comment on a number of “recreation events and services,” several of which would occur on the North Fork. Only a couple of major requests significantly affect the portion of the North Fork north of Big Creek.
The Hungry Horse News has a good write-up on the situation. The items most relevant to the North Fork are quoted below. [Clarifying comments are in brackets.]
“Whitefish Shuttle is seeking a permit to provide guided day-use van tours, biking, and hiking on Forest Service system open roads and trails in the North Fork area of the Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger District and west of Highway 93 on the Tally Lake Ranger District. The permit would allow for shuttle services and guided van tours, biking, and hiking and between June 1 and Oct. 31 on various system roads and trails including Forest Service Roads 115 [Red Meadow Rd], 376 [Hay Creek Rd], 909 [road from Hay Creek Rd past Cyclone LO trailhead to Coal Creek Rd], 317 [Coal Creek Rd], 316, 315, 5207 [these last three are the route to Moose Lake, starting at the Big Creek Rd turnoff from the North Fork Rd] and Forest Trails 40 [trail to Cyclone LO] and 266 [Demers Ridge Trail – likely the trailhead near the Camas Road intersection that accesses the ‘quad burn’ trail up Glacier View Mountain].”
“Northwest Adventure Sports is requesting a permit to provide guided ATV tours on “various” open motorized system roads on the Tally Lake and Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger Districts. Roads currently requested include Forest Roads 9790, 1658, 316 [Big Creek Rd], 115 [Red Meadow Rd]. The permit would allow for guided trips from June 1 until Oct. 31.”
Also note the following other item of interest:
“Spotted Dog Cycles out of Missoula is seeking a permit to run a “bike packing” tour for one week that would stop in the Red Meadow area one night and then drop down into Polebridge. Owner Joe Riemensnider said the entire tour, which will last six days in July, will cover about 150 miles, but only two are actually in the North Fork.”
The deadline for comments is May 1, although this may be extended. Please read the full official announcement document for details on how to submit comments for the various projects.
In case you haven’t heard about it already, the Vital Ground Foundation and the US Forest Service are working on something called the “Glacier Gateway Project.”
They are proposing to acquire two properties totaling about 23 acres using Land and Water Conservation Funds (LWCF). The parcels are along the section of the Polebridge Loop Road between the Polebridge Mercantile and the entrance to Glacier National Park. The acquisition would connect adjacent public lands managed by the Flathead National Forest along the designated Wild and Scenic corridor of the North Fork Flathead River.
The owners of both properties are willing sellers who wish to protect their lands from further development. (There are rumors that one potential buyer wanted to build an RV park.)
Also note that he Pacific Northwest Trail runs along the Polebridge Loop Road after the trail emerges from Glacier Park. Hikers sharing the road with motorized traffic, especially during tourist season, is less than ideal. Acquiring the Glacier Gateway parcels makes it easier for the Forest Service to achieve its eventual goal of a separate trail parallel to the road.
Here’s the deal: Vital Ground and the Forest Service are hoping to get individuals and organizations to send in letters of support for this proposal *by the end of the month.*
Want to read more? Here are the project documents:
Glacier Gateway Project Fact Sheet
Glacier Gateway Project Pictures
Glacier Gateway Project Sample Support Letter (Word format; also see note below)
NOTE: Even though the sample letter is addressed to Leanne Marten, the USFS Regional Forester, please send letters of support (by email preferably) to Mitch Doherty at the Vital Ground Foundation so that he can scan them and include them with the application submission. Here is Mitch’s contact information:
Mitch Doherty
Conservation Program Manager
Vital Ground Foundation
20 Fort Missoula Rd 59804-7202
Missoula, MT
(406) 549-8650
MDoherty@VitalGround.org
An alert from the Montana Wilderness Association concerning the current BLM Resource Management Plan for the area around Lewiston, in central Montana . . .
The Bureau of Land Management yesterday released a second version of a resource management plan (RMP) draft directing how the agency’s Lewistown Field Office will manage 650,000 surface acres of public lands in central Montana over the next 20 to 30 years.
We’ve dubbed this area “the wild heart of Montana,” because it’s one of America’s last and largest intact prairie ecosystems, supporting one of the most productive populations of ungulates in North America and a thriving host of grassland bird species. It’s a remote and stunning place of buttes, breaks, and unbroken grasslands bordering the Upper Missouri River Breaks, the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge, and the UL Bend Wildlife Refuge. The area epitomizes what makes Montana so special.
But the preferred management option Interior presents in the draft RMP released today would protect none of this area. Instead, the RMP would open up almost all of it to oil and gas development and other uses that would diminish the wild character, wildlife habitat, and everything else that makes central Montana so special.
REMINDER – Meeting Thursday, Sep 27
Assuming grizzly bears are delisted in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE, essentially Northwest Montana), Montana would take over management of the bears. The Montana department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is holding a series of meetings to discuss management objectives, including one in Kalispell at 6:30pm on September 27 at the Flathead Valley Community College, Arts and Technology Building, 777 Grandview Drive . . .
Public meetings on how the state will deal with the growing number of grizzly bears around Glacier National Park if they’re removed from the endangered species list begin this week…
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) spokesman Dillon Tabish says the meetings are not meant to address the question of whether or not to delist the bear, and are not related to a separate population of grizzlies around Yellowstone National Park, whose federal protections are currently tangled up in federal court.
“Are we comfortable with a minimum of 800 grizzly bears on the landscape? Is that too many? Is that not enough? We really, genuinely want to hear Montanans’ input on that question and that question alone.”
The meetings will feature presentations on the grizzly population by state biologists and the opportunity for Montanans to voice their opinion on the rule.
RELATED: US Judge Delays Grizzly Bear Hunts in Rockies 2 More Weeks (Flathead Beacon)
A note from NFPA President Debo Powers . . .
Please vote in the November elections. This is a crucial time for supporting public lands and environmental protections, and many other important issues
The North Fork Forum has organized a candidate’s forum at the Community Hall for Montana House District 3 (which is the North Fork’s legislative district) on October 4 at 6:30. Please attend.
House District 3 Candidate Forum!
Since the summer of 2017, The North Fork Forum has facilitated regular community discussions about the U.S. Constitution and related issues. Our goal has been to create a community dialogue that can bridge the political divide that is now so apparent in our government/political system. As we look forward to the upcoming elections, it seems only natural to continue this dialogue process!
As part of that continuing effort, we are hosting a candidate forum in advance of the 2018 midterm elections for the Montana State House of Representatives.
As you likely know, Polebridge is represented in House District 3 (HD3) by incumbent Democrat Zac Perry, who is being challenged by Republican Jerry O’Neil and Libertarian Shawn Guymon. HD3 also includes Columbia Falls and parts of Hungry Horse. All three candidates have accepted an invitation to attend our candidate forum!
We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to come get to know your candidates! The event will be moderated by Nicky Ouellet, the Flathead Valley Reporter from Montana Public Radio! Each candidate will have an opportunity to respond to questions submitted by the community. More details will follow, but for now, please save the date!
Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 6:30 pm!
Sondreson Community Hall
Please bring a snack to share!
Questions? Email Kenna Halsey at kenna@ecometrixsolutions.com or call 971-244-8500