North Shore Preservation
The Daily Inter Lake, Inter Lake editorial
August 16, 2013.
If there’s anywhere around the Flathead where conservation efforts are entirely warranted, it would be the north shore of Flathead Lake, where Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is pursuing the acquisition of 189 acres of farmland.
It has been well-documented how the Flathead River is not confined to its banks. There is a connected groundwater system that flows south into the lake and the north shore is essentially an expansive filter protecting the lake’s water quality.
Protecting that filter from development while maintaining wildlife habitat and public access are what this and other north-shore conservation efforts have been aimed at. In this case, the state would purchase the property and put it under a conservation easement that would keep the land in farming.
There is plenty of development all around the lake. The north shore is special just because it remains mostly undeveloped.
