Lyle Laverty, assistant secretary in charge of fish, wildlife and parks at the U.S. Department of the Interior, told the Missoulian in a telephone interview Friday that the signing is scheduled for Thursday, June 19.
The agreement will then be submitted to Congress for a 90-day review period.
Interior officials quickly entered the fray, and a visit to the Flathead Indian Reservation by four high-level FWS and Interior administrators early last year brought assurances that tribal workers could be back on the job before January 2007 was over.
But nothing happened for almost a year after that.
That changed after Laverty was appointed to his position by President Bush last fall.
In virtual “Get 'er done” language, one of the first moves Laverty made was to order the Fish and Wildlife Service to negotiate a new funding agreement with CSKT.
“Bring this issue to a closure!” he demanded in a memo to agency officials.
Laverty set a March 28 deadline for doing so, but said Friday he didn't mind it had taken nearly three months longer.
“It was just a matter of the complexity of working through the process,” Laverty said. “As long as they were diligent and making progress, I was OK with that.”
After the March 28 deadline passed with nothing being signed, both sides predicted an agreement would be in place before April was over.
When that came and went, both sides said they were close, and a new agreement might even be ready by May 23, when the Bison Range - often called the “crown jewel” of the National Wildlife Refuge System - celebrated its 100th birthday.
But there was no announcement then, or in the following weeks, prompting the request for an interview with the man who had set the March 28 deadline in the first place.
“They're putting on the finishing touches,” Laverty said. “It's come along very well, and we plan to sign the agreement next week.”
The previous one was a disaster.
Tensions mounted over a 14-month period while the tribes were contracted to perform some duties at the range previously carried out by federal employees. The Fish and Wildlife Service accused the tribes of failing to perform some of the duties properly, neglecting others altogether, and said tribal employees created a hostile work environment - charges the tribes strongly denied.
Tribal employees, meantime, accused the agency of deliberately sabotaging their work in a turf war designed to return the tribal jobs to federal employees, while the FWS insisted it had gone the extra mile to help the tribes succeed.
Even before the previous agreement went into effect, 125 national wildlife refuge managers from across the nation sent a letter to several high-ranking officials in Washington, D.C., and Denver back in 2004.
“No refuge manager,” said the letter, addressing what it called a “very vague” annual funding agreement between the FWS and CSKT, “no matter how skilled, could successfully implement this agreement as it is written.”
Laverty suggested that the prolonged negotiations this time were an effort to avoid the pitfalls of the previous agreement.
“They had to figure out how to deal with things that occurred in the past,” he said.
Since 1994, the tribes have sought to manage, or be involved with the operation of, the Bison Range. Acts of Congress have given all Indian tribes the right to seek involvement in, and control over, many federal lands where they can show historical, cultural or geographic connections.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes qualify on all counts. Not only does the Bison Range sit on the reservation, most of today's herd of 350-400 animals descend from a handful of bison brought to the Mission Valley in the 1870s by a Salish Indian who feared the species would be hunted to extinction.
But tribal involvement has been opposed by many national groups, most especially Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which has listed the Bison Range as one of America's 10 most imperiled wildlife refuges because of what it terms the “paralyzing dispute” between the FWS and the tribes.
“As you would expect, I've gotten lots of comments and
e-mails,” Laverty said Friday. “Some people say I've sold the farm, but I don't understand that. The Fish and Wildlife Service retains responsibility for the Bison Range, it remains a National Wildlife Refuge and it remains under the management of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
“The agreement to work with the tribes doesn't reduce Fish and Wildlife Service responsibility whatsoever. I think it's just good business to provide the tribes with the opportunity to engage in the operation of the range. I guess any time you try to do anything differently you'll find people opposed.”
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