Tag Archives: Canadian Flathead

Gold mining threat to North Fork growing

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Uh, oh. It appears the threat of a gold mining operation in the trans-boundary North Fork is growing. From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .

Expanded gold exploration north of Glacier National Park has Montana interests worried about downstream environmental and economic impacts.

“The mining company has apparently made a business decision that investment in the Canadian Flathead may bear fruit for them,” said Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association. Hammerquist called the gold exploration “just one more example of an industrial land use that fails to recognize the importance of this area.”

Located about 10 miles north of the Montana border, the mining zone drains south into the North Fork Flathead River. That waterway forms the western edge of Glacier Park before spilling into Flathead Lake.

For decades, the two countries have battled over Canadian coal mining proposals, often pulling the federal governments into the fray.

Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]

Time for peace in the Flathead Valley

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Today’s Vancouver Sun has a first-rate article — with photos and video, no less — concerning the often contentious issues surrounding preservation of the Canadian Flathead Valley. Very nicely done. Recommended reading.

Here’s the lede . . .

GRIZZLY WIDE PASS — No one knows for sure when humans first discovered this impossible place.

Perhaps it happened on a warm summer evening like this one, an awe-struck group of backcountry travellers watching the mountain goats brave an amphitheatre of sheer rock atop southeastern B.C.’s Flathead Valley.

Read the entire article . . .

UN to hear petition that Waterton-Glacier Park in danger

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Last Tuesday’s Globe and Mail carried an article on the move to place Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park on the UN list of endangered World Heritage Sites due to the proposed Cline Coal Mine in the Canadian Flathead and other possible resource extraction activities in that area. (Thanks to Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association for catching this one.)

A stunningly beautiful park that spans the Canada-U.S. border in southwestern Alberta may soon be added to an infamous United Nations list of the world’s most threatened special areas.

In a session in Seville, Spain, next month, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will consider a petition by 11 conservation groups asking that Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park be designated a World Heritage Site in Danger.

“If that happens, it would be a really big black eye for both Canada and the United States,” Ryland Nelson, a spokesman for one of the petitioning groups, Wildsight, said yesterday.

Read the entire article . . .

NPCA information on North Fork and Glacier Park

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With all the coverage the Trans-boundary Flathead has gotten over the past few weeks, it seemed appropriate to point out that the U.S.-based National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) also has a dog in that fight. They maintain a web page discussing the threats to Glacier Park and the adjoining Flathead River Valley arising from potential resource development in the Canadian Flathead, as well as links to a great deal of supporting material and related documentation. The NPCA is also advocating for the U.N. to designate Waterton-Glacier Park as an endangered World Heritage Site, a move that would focus additional international attention on  the situation.

Campaign to save the Flathead River Valley launches in B.C.

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The Sierra Club BC, Wildsight, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – BC Chapter and Flathead Wild recently launched a drive to save British Columbia’s Flathead River Valley. They hope to get the southern third designated as a national park, effectively filling out Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, and protect the remainder by establishing it as part of a wildlife management area. See the Friends of the Flathead website for more information.

Flathead tops list of BC’s most endangered rivers

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The Outdoor Recreation Council of British Columbia (ORBC) started publishing a list of the most endangered rivers in the province in 2006. This year, the Flathead River is in the #1 spot, as it was in 2007, mostly because of the proposed Cline Coal Mine. An excerpt from today’s press release . . .

The Flathead River, which flows through southeastern BC into Montana, tops British Columbia’s most endangered rivers list for 2009 due to concerns about a controversial proposed open pit coal mine. The Flathead, which was number two on last year’s list, is widely considered one of North America’s wildest and most beautiful waterways. “The Flathead supports important trans-boundary fish populations while also sustaining the highest density of inland grizzly bears anywhere in North America”, said Mark Angelo, Rivers Chair for the Outdoor Recreation Council and an Order of Canada recipient.

Yet, while the US section is protected, the BC stretch faces a number of threats, the most prominent being the proposed Cline open pit coal mine. Given the size and location of the mine in the river’s headwaters, water quality would be impacted and recreational, wildlife and wilderness values would be greatly compromised.

For the full text of the press release and the associated backgrounder document, see the ORBC’s Endangered Rivers page.

UPDATE: Not strictly related to the Canadian Flathead — at least, not yet — but the ORBC is also concerned with the impact of “green” power projects on a number of B.C.’s rivers. The Vancouver Sun has coverage of this issue.

Groups renew call to expand Waterton into B. C. river valley

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From the Saturday, January 31, 2009 online edition of the Calgary Herald . . .

Conservation groups are renewing calls for Waterton Lakes National Park to be expanded into the Flathead River Valley, despite British Columbia’s decision to close the door to coal bed methane development in the ecologically key area in southeastern B.C.

The Sierra Club, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Wildsight and others say the relatively untouched valley is still imperilled.

“Until we have permanent protection for the Flathead River Valley in the form of a national park, it is still threatened by future coal bed methane proposals,” said Sarah Cox, a spokeswoman for Sierra Club B. C. “And it’s under threat from a proposal for strip mining coal and other minerals.”

Read the entire article . . .

Stalemate, some success, retirement

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From the Sunday, January 11, 2009 online edition of the Missoulian . . .

The coal was here, hidden by a thin skin of wilderness, long before Rich Moy arrived; and it was still here, against all odds, when he left.

That, he considers, is at least some sort of success, although much more work will be required to keep it there, buried beneath what’s wild.

“In many ways, it’s been a stalemate for 30 years,” Moy said. “We haven’t lost much ground, but we haven’t gained any, either. The Canadian Flathead and the wilderness north of Glacier National Park have been and will be a flashpoint of international controversy.”

When Moy arrived on this backcountry battlefield, nearly three decades ago, the then-new controversy centered on a proposed Canadian coal mine to be built just a few miles north of Glacier Park.

When he finally retired last month, on the last day of 2008, the now-old controversy centered on yet another coal mine proposed in the headwaters, and a second coal mine in the river bottom, and a gold mine, and a phosphate mine, and an ongoing search for coalbed methane.

“In all these decades,” he said, “the British Columbia government has never wavered in its desire to industrialize the Flathead.”

Read the entire article . . .

More on BP’s Mist Mountain coalbed methane project

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s post regarding the Mist Mountain coalbed methane project, here are links to some additional information . . .

Our friends in Fernie, BC are not very happy about BP Canada’s plans. See the Citizens Concerned About Coalbed Methane site for details.

Wildsight posted a press release last Friday that does a good job of summarizing the problems local residents have with coalbed methane development. It also links to some additional material.

BP’s Mist Mountain Coalbed Gas Project site is another source of information. In particular, the maps page is a bit of an eye-opener.

What’s the Flathead connection? Earlier this year, BP withdrew their efforts to explore the Canadian Flathead for coalbed methane development, but left the door open to return at a later date. (See this post, for example.) Mist Mountain is in the Elk River watershed, not far from the Flathead headwaters and already the site of an open pit mine and a proposed wind farm. Events there are a good predictor of what might happen if that sort of activity spills over into the Flathead Valley.

Canadian Flathead left out of natural-gas deal

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From the Saturday, December 6, 2008 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .

BP Canada on Friday received natural-gas rights for a potential energy project in a segment of British Columbia watched closely by environmental activists in both the province and in Montana.

British Columbia granted the rights to BP for its proposed Mist Mountain coal-bed methane project in the province’s southeast, after the Flathead River Basin was removed from the project area. In the debate about possible environmental effects from Mist Mountain coal-bed methane work, the border-spanning Flathead had been particularly prominent, with activists in Montana raising the specter of harm traveling downstream.

Even with the Flathead removed, the prospect of the coal-bed methane project in combination with other current and proposed industrial activity in southeastern British Columbia is alarming, said Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association in Whitefish near Glacier National Park, which extends to the British Columbia border.

Read the entire article . . .