The group of folks who are interested in collaborating with the Forest Service to provide input into that agency’s new attempt at writing a new Flathead National Forest plan held their second meeting in Whitefish this week.

Most of the meeting was spent discussing ground rules on how the group should operate in order to reach consensus.

Should we have a facilitator to run the meetings and keep us on track or possibly have co-chairs? A facilitator would need to be a basically neutral party interested only in seeing that everyone had an equal voice and keep discussions on topic and moving forward. A chairperson or co-chairs would be members of the group representing one or more of the special interests involved.

Time was also spent talking about whether or not all groups interested in the North Fork had been included. Although the group certainly is diverse — there are timber representatives, environmental groups, landowners, commercial interests, Kutenai Indians, snowmobilers, bicycle enthusiasts and even a Realtor — should we include others? Possibly rafting companies, motorized recreationists or sportsman groups? We will look into it and decide at the next meeting.

Several North Fork groups that attended the first meeting did not attend this meeting. Presidents of the North Fork Compact and North Fork Landowners Association have returned to their winter homes in Maryland and Florida.

Since the group would like to complete a draft plan by spring, it was decided to contact the president of each group and ask them to appoint a local resident to represent their organization. The North Fork Preservation Association may need to do the same thing, since president John Frederick and vice-president Bob Nelson will both be gone for most of the winter.

Although the Whitefish Range is half in the Kootenai National Forest and half in the Flathead National Forest, the group will only address Forest Service land east of the Whitefish Divide to the North Fork River.

That, of course, is the Glacier View Ranger District, commonly known as the North Fork.

It is recognized that, in addition to the Forest Service, Glacier National Park, Flathead County as well as state of Montana agencies have an interest in the North Fork. It’s my hope that all of these will be recognized as resources for information but not be included as voting members of the group.

What do you think?