Back in 1998, BNSF Railway trains derailed and spilled grain near Glacier National Park’s southern border. The railroad at the time decided to bury the grain instead of cleaning it up. Bears were attracted to the mess with unfortunate results — two were illegally shot, another was hit by a train. Lawsuits were filed, and relations between the railroad, state and federal government agencies, and environmental groups were strained.

Out of that came the Great Northern Environmental Stewardship Area (GNESA). The idea at the time was that, rather than sue one another, the agencies and other stakeholders should sit down at the table and try to hash out their differences together, according to GNESA director Dan Vincent.

BNSF Railway changed its clean-up methods drastically — rather than burying the spilled grain, they vacuumed it up, and relationships between agencies were strengthened, even when they didn’t necessarily agree.

GNESA’s original members include the BNSF Railway, Glacier Park, Flathead National Forest and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Over the years it grew to include more than 21 members and agencies, all with a stake in the railroad and highway corridor from East Glacier to West Glacier.

The group had met on a regular basis, but the past few years have seen a quiet transition, Vincent noted last week. GNESA was once under the nonprofit umbrella of the Flathead Land Trust, but the two parted amicably and over the course of more than two years, GNESA has become its own 501(c)3 nonprofit.

Now with growing concerns over derailed oil trains, the group is gearing up for a meeting later this spring, Vincent said.

“Now is a good as time as ever,” he said.

Vincent said he’s started making calls and contacts to interested people and agencies. He retired as FWP Region 1 director and now spends his winters in Arizona, but he hopes to set a meeting date sometime in May.

GNESA is not a decision-making body, he noted — the idea is just to get stakeholders together at the same table.

“A lot of times you can work through things,” he said.

For more information about GNESA, visit online at www.gnsa.org.