Southern Albertans who treasure the unspoiled qualities of Waterton Lakes National Park may believe the park’s World Heritage Site status serves to protect it from environmental plunder.

But that may not be true if a strip mine and a coalbed methane project both eyed for the Flathead Valley in southeastern B.C. — spitting distance from Lethbridge — are allowed by the B.C. government.

The United Nations has begun an investigation in the wake of outcries from area environmentalists (the matter has even been raised in the U.S. presidential race, with Barack Obama weighing in earlier this month) and could end up listing Waterton-Glacier as a World Heritage Site In Danger.

Read the entire article . . .

Possible coal mining and coal-bed methane extraction in southeastern British Columbia warrant investigation by an international board, a coalition of 11 U.S. and Canadian environmental groups said.

The groups on Thursday requested investigation by the International Joint Commission, a Canada-U.S. panel charged with preventing and resolving disputes under a 1909 water treaty. Possible contamination of water in the Flathead River system, which flows into Montana from Canada, is among the groups' concerns.

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Road dust has been a Flathead County scourge for years, and residents have complained that the clouds of particulate matter were affecting their health.

The problem of road dust isn't going away any time soon, but a University of Montana study of the North Fork Road has helped quantify the health risks. Whether that translates into immediate solutions from the county is still uncertain.

Read the entire article . . .

(Note that there is an open house to discuss these changes to fire suppression policy tomorrow, from 7 to 8 p.m., at Sondreson Hall.)

A wildland "fire use" policy that has been mostly applied to wilderness areas is being considered for other parts of the Flathead National Forest.

The proposal came up a year ago, but forest officials are seeking public comments on a proposal for allowing some naturally caused fires, in some circumstances, to burn outside the wilderness.

Read the entire article . . .

(Note that there is an open house to discuss these changes to fire suppression policy tomorrow, from 7 to 8 p.m., at Sondreson Hall.)

Foresters looking to fight fire with fire have started looking beyond the boundaries of designated wilderness areas, and this summer will apply a sort of "let it burn" policy to public lands throughout northwest Montana.

They call it "wildland fire use" and this summer it could be used in the North Fork Flathead drainage above Columbia Falls, the Swan Range near Bigfork and the Mission Mountains.

Read the entire article . . .

Two University of Montana professors revealed the results of the North Fork Road Dust Study to Flathead County commissioners Monday morning.

The conclusion: Airborne particulate matter along the road during summer months is often twice the nationally accepted amounts, which could lead to significant health problems.

Read the entire article . . .

Glacier National Park and its neighbor to the north are endangered by mining proposals, and those threats should be recognized by the international community.

So says a coalition of environmental groups from both sides of the U.S.-Canada line, who this week petitioned the United Nations to investigate dangers posed by coal and coalbed methane production plans directly upstream of Glacier.

Read the entire article . . .

Here's a question I bet you never thought you'd have to ask. Should a Canadian mining company with German and Japanese financial backing be allowed to pollute one of our finest trout streams so that it can ship low-quality coal to China?

View the photo gallery . . .

A Canadian coal company hoping to open a massive mine north of Glacier National Park has encountered a powerful new critic - Sen. Barack Obama.

Obama, who was back under the Big Sky campaigning for president on Friday, has joined Montana's bipartisan congressional delegation in opposition to the mining proposal, "and that's important, because whoever becomes our next president will have a direct role to play, in terms of presenting this issue in an international forum."

So said Will Hammerquist, the local representative for the National Parks Conservation Association.

About a month ago, Hammerquist met with Obama during a campaign stop in Missoula. He had the senator's attention for only a couple minutes, he said, but it was "just enough time to brief him on the issue."

Read the entire article . . .

A long-simmering sore point in Canada-U.S. relations - a proposed open-pit coal mine in a pristine B.C. valley - is irritating Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who wants to be the next U.S. president.

"Barack Obama supports efforts by Senator Max Baucus and Senator Jon Tester as well as Gov. Brian Schweitzer to stop the Cline mine," Obama campaign official Matt Chandler wrote last week in an e-mail to Will Hammerquist of the U.S. National Parks Conservation Association.

"The Flathead River and Glacier National Park are treasures that should be conserved for future generations."

Environmentalists say the mine could pollute the north fork of the Flathead River, which flows from B.C. into Montana and forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park.

Read the entire article . . .

From the Wednesday, June 4, 2008 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .

Jim Dupont has limited Gary Hall to one term as Flathead County commissioner.

Dupont, longtime former sheriff, far outdistanced incumbent Commissioner Hall in Tuesday's primary election to win the Republican nomination for the county's top job.

[...]

Dupont campaigned on three key issues: roads and dust, public safety and private property rights. He said he is running because he believes the county needs someone on the commission who can make better decisions.

Read the entire article . . .

Several leading environmental groups in the U.S. and Canada have written to the United Nations asking that proposed energy developments along British Columbia's Flathead River be investigated as threats to a World Heritage Site.

In a letter sent yesterday, the organizations state that Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, which links globally significant national parks in Alberta and Montana, be placed on the UN's World Heritage in Danger list.

"There is substantial danger that the existing statutory and regulatory framework will fail to adequately protect Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park and its surrounding lands from adverse impacts caused by mining and CBM [coal bed methane] development in the headwaters of the Flathead River," the groups state in a letter to Francesco Bandarin, director of the UN's World Heritage Centre.

Read the entire article . . .

Both letters take a jaundiced view of spending big money on a section of the North Fork Road when the need is so much greater elsewhere. The full text of the letters follows...

Just when you thought you'd heard it all comes County Commissioner Gary Hall's comments on road dust and paving that appeared in a recent issue of the Hungry Horse News. No doubt valley residents who live on unpaved roads would have been upset—if not outraged—had they read them.

After the furor over the problems of road dust on unpaved roads in the valley and the county's announced plan to treat all unpaved county roads equally, Hall writes—ostensibly in response to a letter from Columbia Falls banker Joe Francini—"I am completely in favor of paving the North Fork (Road) as far as Camas Creek." Now where, some might ask, does the North Fork Road go? To Polebridge, year-round population of 10, or maybe 12.

Mr. Hall, who is running for re-election as commissioner, goes on to say, "Currently, I am working closely with the North Fork Road Coalition for Health and Safety to bring all government parties to the table." He says he is planning a meeting for May 21 at the Columbia Falls bank owned by Mr. Francini and hopes to "come away from that meeting with a solid plan for dust mitigation or paving of the North Fork Road."

Hall says a report on road dust studies conducted last summer will be given and his comments infer that he is concerned about the health, safety and welfare of county citizens.

The thousands of valley taxpayers who live on unpaved roads, eat dust day in and day out to get to work and take the kids to school, may wonder why Hall is more concerned about the health and safety of the hundred or so folks who live up the North Fork than he is about them and their kids. They may question why they should pay for paving a road that out-of-staters use a few times each summer to get to their million dollar vacation homes. They may wonder why this meeting Hall is having is in a bank in Columbia Falls and not a public venue in Kalispell or Whitefish—and why they weren't invited.

They may wonder if that county road dust plan the commissioners announced in January is all bunk, considering that the cost of paving one mile of the North Fork Road costs the same as treating 50 miles of unpaved roads with dust palliative. They may also wonder why Commissioner Hall is conducting the meeting instead of the county's Road Advisory Committee. All good questions, and Mr. Hall needs to answer them.

Like Hall's tactics or not, you've got to give him credit for chutzpah (I once lived in New York.) In this election year, he's not afraid of giving the appearance that he's practicing cronyism or favoritism. A former Columbia Falls mayor, Mr. Hall writes, "I believe that Columbia Falls can benefit as the Gateway to Glacier." No doubt banker Joe Francini and other Columbia Falls business owners would be real happy to have valley taxpayers create a smooth ribbon of asphalt up the North Fork to speed development and line their pockets.

I, on the other hand, believe that the announced county dust abatement plan should go forward, that any talk of paving roads should be out in the open for full public disclosure, input and oversight, and that decisions on spending taxpayer dollars for paving county roads should be based on priorities reflecting the number of taxpayers using those roads, the amount of traffic they carry and the county revenue contributed by taxpayers living on them. That's only fair. And if done fairly, the North Fork Road would surely be one of the last roads paved, not the first.

Finally, I hope all readers will take note of Mr. Hall's words in the Hungry Horse News when they step into the voting booth this June.

The following letter from Bill Breen ran in last week's Flathead Beacon and Hungry Horse News.

Flathead County Commissioner Gary Hall recently wrote to the Hungry Horse News in which he promotes paving the North Fork road as far as Camas Creek.

Who does Mr. Hall think he is serving? Certainly not the taxpayers of Flathead County.

Commissioner Hall would be hard pressed to gain sympathy for this proposal from the many citizens (including myself) who live on heavily traveled unpaved roads in other parts of the county. Those who live on Jensen Road, McMannamy Draw, Lost Creek Drive, Mountain Meadow and many others find it outrageous that taxpayers would pay for paving a road to the wilderness of the North Fork while heavily traveled roads go unpaved. Roads with hundreds of more people living nearby and driving daily.

These roads generate clouds of polluted particulates into our atmosphere and are extremely harmful to human respiratory systems, particularly children, the elderly, and those who do strenuous outdoor work.

The road dust problem in Flathead County unfortunately might be with us for some time. Both federal and local dollars for paving are scarce. But there are some steps to mitigate this serious problem.

* Follow up on a proposal from the county Road Advisory Committee to use a different type of gravel that holds dust to the surface of the road.

* Require developers rather than taxpayers to pay for sub-division access roads in addition to interior roads.

* Stop approving sub-divisions before adequate road infrastructure is in place.

* Fix the much abused Family Transfer loopholes that allow developers to bypass county review.

* Enforce speed limits.

Solutions like this is what Commissioner Hall should advocate -- not wasting tax dollars on expensive boondoggles that serve very few people.

Area rivers topped flood stage on Monday, sending water into low-lying areas of West Glacier and Polebridge.

[...]

In Polebridge, the North Fork of the Flathead River rose gradually over the last few days, finally swamping the lawn at the North Fork Hostel on Sunday night.

"I have some water in my yard as of this morning," said hostel owner Oliver Meister, who has been watching the National Weather Service online river forecasting closely. "Believe me, I've been looking at that for the last five days."

The river gauge at Polebridge showed flows reaching 11.25 feet Monday, just below the river's 12-foot flood stage. But the North Fork was forecasted to crest just above flood stage by this morning.

Meister said he was prepared to sandbag his house to keep water out of his kitchen.

The hostel has the lowest-lying structures in the Polebridge area, and Meister speculated that the river would have to exceed its forecasted peak by quite a bit to cause problems for neighboring homes.

Read the entire article . . .

With cooler than expected weekend temperatures, the National Weather Service revised earlier flooding predictions downward Saturday, though several rivers are still expected to near or reach flood stage.

[...]

According to Sunday’s projection, the main stem of the Flathead River near Columbia Falls will now fall just short of its 14-foot flood stage; the river – originally projected to crest at 15.8 feet – is expected to reach 13.57 feet on Monday before receding. The North Fork of the Flathead at Polebridge will crest at 11.58 feet, just short of its flood stage of 12 feet, at about noon Monday, and the Stillwater River near Lawrence Park is now expected to fall well short of its 7.5-foot flood stage.

Read the entire article . . .