PABLO – The chairman of Montana’s Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes says he has been invited by the White House to participate on a climate change panel this week in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Chairman James Steele will join Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a state lawmaker from Minnesota and an aide to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to to discuss state and tribal efforts to address climate change.
The Thursday panel is part of the 2009 UN Conference on Climate Change. The National Wildlife Federation and National Tribal Environmental Council are paying for Steele’s trip.
Salish and Kootenai spokesman Rob McDonald says the northwestern Montana tribes have tried to deal with the global issue at the local level. That includes energy conservation initiatives, a prohibition on logging in the Mission mountain range and the reclaiming of riparian wetlands.