From the Saturday, September 10, 2005 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
The farther north Canadian coal mining proposals reach - that is, the more distant they become from the Montana border - the more Clint Muhlfeld worries.
"We know that our bull trout use the upper portion of the watershed," Muhlfeld said. "It's critical habitat, and the higher these proposals reach into those headwaters, the greater the impact on a fish that's already on the brink of extinction."
Muhlfeld is a fisheries biologist with the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks; south of the border, his job is to protect and recover endangered bull trout.
But north of the border, where many of those bull trout spawn and rear and migrate seasonally, the waterways they call home flow over deposits of gold, coal, oil and gas, rich resources British Columbia's government is keen to develop.
Much of Muhlfeld's research has been conducted in the North Fork Flathead River, which forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park before joining the South and Middle forks to flow into Flathead Lake.
The North Fork is a prime bull trout system, Muhlfeld said, and its Canadian headwaters are no exception. In fact, more than half the North Fork's bull trout travel north of the border to spawn.
The Canadian Flathead has long promised a natural resource bonanza, and proposals to mine coal and gold, to drill for oil and gas, have been active for decades. Equally active has been the outcry from south of the border, where downstream residents in Montana see nothing to gain and everything to lose from provincial development.
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From the Wednesday, September 7, 2005 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
After meeting Tuesday with British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer expressed optimism that the state's environmental concerns will not be ignored in regard to mining projects in the Canadian headwaters of the Flathead River.
"He's a bright guy, and he has a good understanding of what we are dealing with here," Schweitzer said of Campbell, whom he met in Vancouver, B.C. "He was unequivocal. He said he has no interest in degrading the water or the air in the Flathead basin."
For the last two years, a series of mining proposals in the Canadian Flathead has prompted concerns in Montana about potential downstream pollution that could impact water quality and fisheries, along with transboundary wildlife populations.
The Flathead Basin Commission and the Flathead Coalition -- a group formed in the 1980s to counter a Canadian mining project -- have called for a comprehensive study of existing environmental conditions in Canada. The study would provide baseline information so future impacts could be measured and mitigated.
Without baseline data, Schweitzer said, it can be difficult to prove that concentrations of sodium, for example, were not naturally occurring in a river prior to upstream mining development.
"I told Campbell that we would be more than happy to participate in a baseline study in the upper Flathead Basin," Schweitzer said. "He was amenable to that."
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The AP story on the upcoming Schweitzer-Campbell meeting, as posted to the online edition of CBC News on Sptember 3, 2005 . . .
British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and have set a date next week to discuss a number of boundary environmental issues, including controversial mining proposals just north of Glacier National Park.
"I'm sure they'll find they have a lot to talk about," Hal Harper, chief policy adviser to Schweitzer, said Wednesday of the Sept. 6 meeting in Victoria.
Schweitzer first pursued a meeting with Campbell several months ago to talk about a proposed exploratory coal mine in the headwaters of the North Fork Flathead River. The location of the proposed mine is an area that has been under dispute by the two countries for decades, ever since coal mining was first proposed there in the late 1970s.
Downstream interests have long worried that industrial pollution could taint pristine Montana waters.
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The lead story in the Thursday, September 1, 2005 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Montana's governor and the premier of British Columbia have finally made a date to discuss transboundary environmental issues, even as a whole host of industrial development proposals are surfacing north of Glacier National Park.
"They're meeting in Victoria on Sept. 6," said Hal Harper, chief policy adviser to Gov. Brian Schweitzer. "I'm sure they'll find they have a lot to talk about."
Things such as coal mines and gold mines, oil wells and gas wells, enough heavy industry to fill Canada's Flathead River Valley from bottom to top.
Several months ago, when Schweitzer started pursuing a meeting with Premier Gordon Campbell, the governor thought they might talk about a single exploratory coal mine in the headwaters of the North Fork Flathead River. The general area of the mine, in southeast British Columbia, has been a bone of contention between the two countries for decades, ever since coal mining was first proposed there in the late 1970s.
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