KTVQ

Posted: Mar 4, 2010 9:27 PM
Updated: Mar 4, 2010 9:28 PM

WASHINGTON DC - Just two weeks after Montana and British Columbia signed an agreement to preserve the North Fork of the Flathead, the state's two senators are following up with legislation to protect the American side of the valley.

Last month, Governor Brian Schweitzer and B.C. Premiere Gordon Campbell met in Vancouver to sign the memorandum of understanding to jointly protect the near-wilderness valley which straddles the border.

The agreement formalized Campbell's surprise announcement that the province would ban all mining in the Flathead, ending decades of debate over protecting the isolated region.

Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus formally introduced legislation on Thursday, extending protection to the southern end of the valley, the section known by Montanans as the "North Fork". Like the Canadian policy change, the bill would eliminate the prospect of "new mining, oil and has development and coalbed gas extraction on either side of the border", according to a joint statement from the two senators.

Since nearly 600,000 acres in the U.S. Flathead is federal land, Baucus and Tester say it will take Congressional action to protect the valley while still allowing "traditional uses" like hunting, fishing and logging.