The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes announced Friday they have finalized draft legislation that would return management authority of the National Bison Range to the tribes.

The bison range is currently owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. The tribes have sought the return of the land since the federal government removed it from the Flathead Indian Reservation in 1908, despite the protests of the tribal government.

Transferring the land would require an act of Congress to proceed, but so far no members of Montana’s congressional delegation have indicated an intention to sponsor the legislation.

Under the proposed transfer legislation, the 18,000-acre property, buildings and other improvements would be transferred to the tribes, although the land would be held in trust by the federal government for the benefit of the tribes. It would not affect the adjacent Ninepipe and Pablo national wildlife refuges.

In a press release announcing the finalized legislation, tribal spokesman Rob McDonald said 153 comments received from the public between June 10 and July 15 resulted in several changes to the draft legislation.

Lake and Sanders counties, which overlap the boundaries of the refuge, are currently provided with federal funding each year under a cost-sharing program established by the federal government.

As with the original draft legislation, the revised bill would phase out those payments over five years, but would provide payments to Lake and Sanders counties equal to 90 percent of their current funding during each of those years. The previous proposal would have provided declining payments — 90 percent the first year, 75 percent the following year and 50 percent each of the final three years.

The revised version also requires the tribes, following a two-year transfer period after enactment of the transfer bill, to maintain a publicly available management plan for the refuge and to include within it a strategy for controlling invasive weeds on the property.

The updated legislation also adds an explicit prohibition against gaming activities on the refuge.

Absent from the final draft bill is an exemption from the National Environmental Policy Act that had appeared in the original version.

The earlier provision had stated that the Department of Interior “Secretary’s cooperation with, and assistance to, the tribes on transition activities under this Act shall not constitute a major federal action for purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act.”

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national organization long opposed to tribal involvement in the Bison Range, is currently suing the federal wildlife agency to stop the transfer.

In the lawsuit filed in May, the group alleged that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s involvement in the transfer proposal constituted such a major federal action, which would trigger an environmental study under the federal environmental statute.

To view the revised draft bill, public comments received by the tribes and the tribes' responses to those comments, visit bisonrangeworkinggroup.org.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.