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It was the passage of Montana’s Natural Areas Act in 1974 that
opened the way for the creation of the Owen Sowerwine Natural
Area (OSNA). That act was shepherded through the legislative
process by Senator Dorothy Bradley, head of the Governor’s
Natural Areas Committee, and Ted Schwinden, who was at that time
the Chair of the State Land Board.
The first proposal of a natural area site under the new Act came
from the recently formed Flathead County Park Board. The Park
Board nominated a 442-acre tract of state forest land that
encompassed a large island (“the Big Island”) in the braided
section of the Flathead River, at the confluence of the Flathead
and Stillwater Rivers, and portions of near-by islands and
mainland shore pieces. Flathead County would pay the state lease
fee on the tract, and the County Park Board would be responsible
for managing the tract as a natural area. The Chair of the new
Park Board, and one of the most energetic proponents of this
project, was Owen Sowerwine. Sowerwine had also been a member of
the State Land Board. He was well known in the Flathead at this
time as an avid outdoorsman, and a dedicated conservationist.
This 442-acre tract became Montana’s first natural area. In
April 1976, the State Land Board issued its recommendation that
the tract be designated a natural area. The Land Board
recommended that it be named after Owen Sowerwine, who had died
a little over a year before, in January 1975. A public hearing
on the proposed designation was held in May 1976 in the
Community Room of the Conrad National Bank in Kalispell. The
public was enthusiastic and the designation process moved
forward. In due course the Owen Sowerwine Natural Area was
established.
The official dedication ceremony took place September 9, 1978.
An article in The Daily Inter Lake the following day begins: “It
became official Saturday. A wild thicket enfolded in the coils
of the Flathead and Stillwater Rivers is now protected under the
name of Owen Sowerwine, the longtime Flathead Valley resident
and conservationist who initiated the fight to preserve the
area.”
Participants in the
ceremony that Saturday gathered in the morning at the Outlaw
Inn, and were taken in a bus donated by the Inn to a boat launch
site on the Stillwater. Volunteers from the Flathead County
Search and Rescue then ferried the participants to the Big
Island in boats provided by Montana Fish and Game. The
dedication ceremony was attended by members of Sowerwine’s
family, then Lt. Governor Ted Schwinden, the members of the
Flathead County Park Board, (then chaired by Arnold Jacobsen of
Whitefish), and a number of other county and state officials.
The site was managed as a natural area by the Flathead County
Park Board through 1995. In 1994 the yearly state lease fee had
risen from the original $200 to $550, and Flathead County
decided it could no longer afford to retain the lease. In 1996
Flathead Audubon stepped forward to assume the lease and manage
the Area in order to maintain its status as a natural area.
When a new
assessment in 1999 threatened an astronomical rise in the lease
fee, Flathead Audubon joined with Montana Audubon to negotiate a
long-term license for OSNA with a reasonable fee. Agreement was
finally reached in the spring of 2001. Montana Audubon became
the official license holder, and provided insurance for Audubon
sponsored activites at OSNA. Flathead Audubon paid the bulk of
the yearly license fee and carried out the management of the
Area.
This license expired
at the end of February 2010. At that time, a new 10-year license
was signed. Again Montana Audubon is the official license
holder, and provides insurance. Flathead Audubon remains the
on-site manager of OSNA, and continues to pay the bulk of the
license fee. Flathead Audubon and Montana Audubon share the
management costs.
The original management plan for Owen Sowerwine was written in
the late 1970s by the Flathead County Park Board. The forward to
that plan, written by Sam Bibler, calls on the managers of OSNA
“… to keep the heavy hand of man as much out of the management
as possible, and to proceed as carefully and thoughtfully as
possible.” With the signing of the first 1-ydar license in 2001
came the task of writing a new management plan for the OSNA.
Working together, Montana Audubon, Flathead Audubon, and the
Montana Department of Natural Resources, developed a new plan
that is basically an updated version of the original management
plan. This new plan was officially adopted when it was approved
by the Montana State Land Board in January, 2003.
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