On a smoky day, celebrating the North Fork

Despite a thick smoke in the skies, it was a day of celebration in the North Fork Monday as dignitaries, private citizens, and businesses gathered in Blankenship to recognize the North Fork Watershed Protection Act.

The Act, passed last December, bans all future energy leases on Forest Service lands in the drainage. The Canadians, in turn, also passed legislation to ban oil and gas leases in the watershed as well.

The event was organized by National Parks Conservation Association's Glacier Program Manager Michael Jamison.

Jamison said there was a reason why it was called "The North Fork" rather the just North Fork. It's a one-of-a-kind landscape. There is no other like it. The North Fork makes up the western boundary of Glacier National Park.

The fight to stop energy development in the region was a 40-year battle, started by then Sen. Max Baucus.

"I was senior in high school," noted Sen. Jon Tester.

Tester said the work isn't done, a similar struggle is playing out in the Badger Two Medicine region south of Glacier National Park, where a company wants to drill for oil and gas on lands considered sacred by the Blackfeet Tribe.

"We need to do the same there (as we did in North Fork)," Tester said.

He noted there are appropriate places to drill for oil and gas, but places like the North Fork "are too special."

"Today I'm particularly proud to be a Montanan," he said.

Montana Sen. Steve Daines had similar sentiments, saying the community support made the legislation possible. He thanked Jamison and his staff for their work on the effort.

Stacey Schnebel, the president of the Columbia Falls Area of the Chamber of Commerce, said it makes economic sense to protect the watershed, noting the host of businesses that rely on the landscape for their livelihoods.

Speaking on behalf of the Canadian government was consul general Marcy Grossman and from Conoco Phillips was Bijan Agarwal. Agarawal noted the company voluntarily relinquished more than 169,000 acres of leases it held in the region.

But there is still work to be done. There is concern about heavy logging planned for the headwaters by Canadian companies in the headwaters of the region and some conservationists have worked for years to lobby for expansion of Waterton Lakes Park to the west bank of the river.

Also, the bill does not abolish existing leases, of which there's still several thousand acres that are being held. Those leases have been in a legal limbo, however, since the 1980s.