Last week, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester said he was working on a new solution to pay for retired oil and gas leases in the North Fork.

“Retiring the leases in the North Fork is moving along better than I thought it would,” Tester said, noting about 80 percent — more than 200,000 acres — of the leases have been voluntarily retired.

British Columbia’s government has asked that private corporations across the border receive about $17 million for retiring their leases. Last year, the minor furor arose over how Sens. Max Baucus and Tester were going to secure the funds.

“The area is the most pristine in the U.S.” Tester said. “Corporations and citizens are stepping up. Canada is looking to get private dollars instead of tax dollars, but nothing is set in stone yet.”

Monday, Baucus and Tester announced that they reintroduced legislation, the North Fork Watershed Protection Act, to prevent new oil and gas development and mining on the American side of the North Fork watershed. The bill passed committee review and made it to the Senate floor last year, but did not reach a final vote.

“There are few places on earth like the North Fork when it comes to hunting, fishing, hiking and camping — but Montanans understand that protecting these areas is about more than just our outdoor heritage,” said Tester, who is chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. “This legislation is another step toward making sure future generations will be able to continue enjoying all of the outdoor opportunities Montana has to offer.”

The North Fork Watershed Protection Act of 2011 does not impede timber production, hunting or fishing and as the senators said it has the support of a broad coalition of Montana businesses, local officials and conservation groups.

“As Montanans, we have a connection to the land that unites us, but also requires us to act as stewards of our outdoor heritage,” Baucus said in a prepared release. “We’re pushing to build on the success we’ve had getting companies to retire oil and gas development leases in the North Fork at no cost to taxpayers. Places like the North attract tourists, businesses and jobs to our state.”

ALSO IN THE works from Montana’s U.S. Senate delegation is support for a highway bill.

In a hearing last week in the Environment and Public Works Committee, Baucus stressed the importance of highways in rural states like Montana and urged action to create jobs by upgrading and maintaining the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

“My home state of Montana, is a highway state,” Baucus said. “In fact, we like to say Montana is like one big neighborhood with really long streets. The one thing we know for sure in Montana is that our transportation system serves us all.”

A highway reauthorization bill has not yet been assembled, but Tester said he believes the Going-to-the-Sun Road has and continues to open up critical economic development opportunities to Flathead Valley.

Tester said he believes that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act demonstrated how successful investments in Montana’s infrastructure can create good-paying jobs. The Recovery Act included nearly $30 million that created jobs through reconstruction and upgrades on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Other Recovery Act monies help fund repairs to the West Side Reservoir Road outside Hungry Horse.

“A highway bill will do a lot for the economy in the long term,” Tester said. “We’ve got to make investments in certain things. In states like Montana (highways) are critically important.”

Tester also said that Montana’s elected representatives know the state’s infrastructure needs better than bureaucrats at the U.S. Department of Transportation and he is concerned that with the House of Representatives abandoning transparent earmarks, and other investments that create jobs and open up economic development, projects like ones on the Sun Road — and the jobs that come with them — may be at risk.

DURING A PRESS call with journalists last week, Tester also discussed how he supports a controlled wolf hunt to manage Montana’s wolf population (for more about how Montana’s congressional delegation is handling the wolf issue, read the story on page B4). Tester said he believes the decisions U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy has made are bad for the state.

“We need to pass laws back here that protect our resources so our kids and grandkids can use them,” the senator said. “But we need to utilize our resources. We’ve got incredible resources in the state of Montana.”

Tester also said he doesn’t agree with Montana House Bill 317, which will eliminate the bed tax in the state.

“Bed tax money is used to improve tourism across all of Montana,” he said. “The state’s trying to balance the budget just like the federal government and I applaud those efforts as long as they don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”