Rating:

5.0 (2 votes)

POLSON - Governor Schweitzer was in Lake County on Thursday to accept an award for his work on the Montana- British Columbia agreement.

The Governor was at the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station to be honored by the conservation group the Flathead Lakers. While there, Schweitzer revealed more details to what went on behind the scenes when trying to work on the agreement.

Members of the Flathead Lakers, which have been backing plans to protect water on the Flathead water system for decades, awarded Governor Schweitzer and the Premier Campbell of British Columbia the Stewardship Award.

The pair were chosen because they signed the Montana-British Columbia agreement late last winter which bans mining, oil, and gas developments in the North Fork Flathead waters.

Premier Campbell was unable to make the presentation, but the room was packed with residents who listened to the Governor accept the award. During his speech Schweitzer told the group it actually took repeated efforts to hammer out a workable agreement.

"I walked away from this negotiation table three times. The one thing Gordon and I agreed to do, I flew up to Vancouver very early in my administration and we shook hands on this and we said we will try one more time and we are not going to talk to the press, people aren't going to know we are discussing this and if we are successful we will announce it together, whenever that is. And if we fail we will walk away and never say anything."

Schweitzer went on to say he didn't know why he was getting an award because it was the members of the Flathead Lakers who made this a reality.