Sheena Pate joins Flathead Rivers Alliance as organizations first Executive Director. In 2022, she led FRA efforts that resulted in 111 stream miles improved, 240+ volunteers, 800+ volunteer hours, 4 programs, 7 projects, 5 events, and a co-hosted Big Sky Watershed Corps Member with Flathead National Forest and Glacier National Park.

In 2019, diverse stakeholders including agencies, guides, outfitters, landowners, businesses, and community members gathered to form the Flathead Rivers Alliance, a nonprofit organization that has since led collaborative efforts to safeguard the future of Montana’s Flathead Wild and Scenic River system. The organization’s mission is deceptively simple: Support and enhance the outstandingly remarkable values of the three forks of the Flathead, which are defined by the National Park Service as recreation, scenery, wildlife, botany, geology, fisheries, water quality, ethnography, and history. And that’s where the simplicity ends.

Management of the Three Forks of the Flathead Wild and Scenic River isn’t simple, it’s complex. But understanding its value and learning what tools are available to prevent degradation does not have to be complex. Our goal is to promote a better understanding of those values and create new generations of river stewards so that more restrictive tools like a permitting system won’t be necessary.