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.