Monthly Archives: February 2009

State may get $2 million riverfront property

Environmental Issues, News,

From the Wednesday, February 4, 2009 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is closing in on two waterfront land acquisitions with Bonneville Power Administration funding.

A 245-acre parcel of undeveloped land along Foy’s Bend on the Flathead River south of Kalispell is being purchased for just more than $2 million, plus a 53-acre parcel along Hay Creek in the North Fork Flathead River drainage is being purchased for about $400,000.

Environmental reviews for both projects were amended to clarify terms of conservation easements that will be held on both properties by BPA.

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Bennett fires back with haughty e-mail

Environmental Issues, News, , , , ,

Here’s a curiousity. Just a year ago, Bill Bennett, British Columbia’s mining minister, was forced to resign due to some wildly intemperate remarks regarding opposition to resource development in the Canadian Flathead. Bennett, now Tourism, Culture and Arts Minister, is at it again. This time, he was responding to a Fernie area tourism operator accusing Bennett of being more interested in coalbed methane development than tourism.

From the Thursday, February 5, 2009 online edition of 24 Hours Vancouver . . .

Tourism, Culture and Arts Minister Bill Bennett has described a tourism operator in his riding as having “bigoted” and “ignorant” opinions – accusing Steve Kuijt of writing a “vicious and mean-spirited” e-mail, which “may well be libelous.”

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

Environmental Issues, News, , , , , , , , , , ,

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 . . .