Here’s the Hungry Horse News’ take on the recently introduced Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act . . .
A bill introduced in the British Columbia legislature last week would ban mining and oil and gas exploration in the Canadian Flathead, which is the North Fork of the Flathead River north of the border.
The Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, introduced by Steve Thomson, B.C.’s minister of forests lands and natural resource operations, codifies an earlier memorandum of understanding between B.C. and Montana to ban mining in the region.
The MOU, negotiated in 2010 by Gov. Brian Schweitzer and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, broke 30-plus years of differences between the two entities over mining in the drainage. B.C. mining interests through the years have proposed several mining and energy exploration projects in the drainage north of Glacier National Park.