Flathead Valley | North Fork Preservation Association

From the Tuesday, November 25, 2008 online edition of the Keremeos Review . . .

Seven out of ten Kootenay residents want to protect the Flathead River Valley as a national park, according to new polling results released today by Wildsight and Sierra Club BC. The poll, conducted by McAllister Opinion Research, found that 73 per cent of residents in East Kootenay, Nelson-Creston and Columbia River-Revelstoke favour protecting the Flathead River Valley in southeastern B.C.

The Flathead River Valley is compared to Africa’s Serengeti for its richness of plant species and was recently called “a nursery” for wildlife by Canadian Geographic magazine. The valley is under threat from proposals for coal strip mining, coalbed methane drilling and unbridled mineral extraction.

Read the entire article . . .

If it passes, the open space bond on this November’s ballot is likely to have some impact on the North Fork in the future. Michael Jamison has a good write-up on the issue in the October 13, 2008 online edition of the Missoulian . . .

Flathead County, home to the three fastest-growing cities in Montana, is losing agricultural and forest open space at a tremendous rate, as developers build subdivisions across rural lands.

“It’s been a steady loss,” said Marilyn Wood. “We can’t afford to allow that to continue.”

Whether locals can afford to stop it is another matter entirely.

On Nov. 4, when voters go to the polls here, they’ll be asked to back a $10 million open space bond, money that will buy rural land – or at least conservation easements on land. The idea is to secure recreational access, especially at waterfront sites, to protect wildlife, to preserve sweeping views, to ensure water quality and to allow the Flathead’s rural way of life to persist into coming decades.

“Ten million sounds like a lot,” admitted Wood, who runs the Flathead Land Trust, “but it’s really a very reasonable amount for a program that’s going to have such a big impact.”

And residents appear to agree. A survey of Flathead Valley residents showed two-thirds of those polled supported the 20-year bond, which will cost the owner of a $200,000 home about $19 a year.

Read the entire article . . .