This is not strictly North Fork news, but is likely of interest to a lot of folks who follow this site. From Thursday’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .
She’s up in the Nyack Creek wilderness right now, working huckleberry hillsides with her two cubs, but this old grizzly will come back. She always comes back.
That’s the problem. That’s why this time, when she returns, she’ll be killed.
Here is the press release from last Tuesday’s visit to the North Fork by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, accompanied by Montana Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester. It’s also available online at 7thSpace Interactive.
It’s worth reading. There are a few gems buried in the midst of the obligatory political verbiage.
Salazar, Baucus, Tester Announce Study of Potential Threats to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park
KALISPELL, Mt – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester today announced the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the World Heritage Center will conduct a review early this fall of the potential threats, such as proposed coal mining and oil and gas development, to the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in Montana and Alberta, Canada.
In June, the 21-nation World Heritage Committee, part of the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO), called for the review as it considers whether the park should be placed on its list of World Heritage Sites that are in danger. The scientific review will take place September 20 to 26.
“Senators Baucus and Tester and I have serious concerns about the potential impact of energy development on the park’s water, wildlife and other resources,” Salazar said. “With the support of Canada, I am pleased that just three months after the World Heritage Committee called for this review, scientists will be on the ground to give us an objective assessment of the possible threats to the park.”
“The North Fork is a gem for Montana. I’ve been working for decades to keep it protected, and I wanted to bring Secretary Salazar out here so he could see it with his own eyes. When you see how magnificent this place is it is a no brainer that we need to protect it. Secretary Salazar is a westerner and a friend, and I am so glad that he is going to be such a strong ally in our fight. This review is a good step and will give the world a chance to see the value of this resource and the threats it will face until we have long-term protections in place. I will never rest until this place is protected for our kids and grandkids,” said Senator Baucus.
“Glacier National Park is one of the world’s most important places,” said Tester, a member of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. “Taking inventory of any challenges we face in the future will help us protect Montana’s clean water and make sure that Glacier will always inspire visitors from around the world.”
Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana on the United States side and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta on the Canadian side, were designated by law as the world’s first International Peace Park in 1932. The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is traversed by the Lewis Range and contains outstanding glacial lakes and alpine scenery and is significant as a habitat exceptionally rich in plant and mammal life.
The park protects an important biological crossroads at the point where the Rocky Mountains reach their narrowest width. It also serves as a celebration of the longest undefended contiguous border between two nations and a reminder that our natural resources have no boundaries.
The United States is concerned that proposed mining and energy developments in the mostly pristine Canadian Flathead region could potentially threaten the Flathead River in Montana which forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park.
The 21-nation World Heritage Committee oversees the list of World Heritage Sites that are of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. Sites that are deemed to be in jeopardy are placed on the endangered list. Both the United States and Canada would have to agree to the designation before it could be made.
The Committee requested the mission take place as soon as possible so that the results can be considered by the Committee in its next session in the summer of 2010. The United States and Canada have committed to complete a State of Conservation Report by February 1, 2010.
Contact: Hugh Vickery (202) 208-6416
The Missoulian introduced a redesigned web site this afternoon. Unfortunately, this screwed up every inbound link to their stories for the past several years, not to mention trashing external search engine results from outfits like Google. Apparently, we’ve got some teething problems here. It’s going to take quite a while to clean this up. In the meantime, readers of this weblog looking for linked Missoulian stories will need to dig them up based on topic search at the Missoulian’s web site.
Sorry, folks, there’s not much we can do except work back through the posts and try to clean up all the link rot introduced by this “upgrade.” Fixed-up links will be flagged with [link repaired]. We’ll not likely go back more than a month or so, though — just too much work.
Update
Well, it looks like the Missoulian’s new search index is incomplete for articles prior to about August 1. We’ve fixed up all the August story links. We’re not having much luck for material prior to that date.
The Missoulian covered yesterday’s visit to the North Fork by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar with a nice write-up and about five minutes of video. Here’s the lead-in . . .
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, on a swing through Montana to highlight water issues, came to the North Fork on Tuesday to see the confluence where the South, Middle and North forks join to make the Flathead River. But the crowd milling below Blankenship Bridge, about 10 miles north of Columbia Falls, kept him from water’s edge.
Finally Salazar linked arms with Democratic Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Then, turning to Baucus, who has fought upstream development for decades, Salazar said, “Show me your river, Max.”
The North Fork Flathead is not, of course, Max’s river; but it has run steadily through the senator’s political career, countless gallons of wild and scenic water under Baucus’ bridge.
Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]
Yesterday’s visit to the North Fork by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, accompanied by Montana Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester, and Chas Cartwright, superintendent of Glacier National Park, is getting lots of coverage.
Here’s the lede from the Flathead Beacon’s write-up . . .
Standing near the bridge below the confluence of the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead Rivers, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday he hopes there can be some type of designation protecting Glacier National Park and the Flathead Basin from upstream natural resource development in place by next year.
Uh, oh. It appears the threat of a gold mining operation in the trans-boundary North Fork is growing. From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Expanded gold exploration north of Glacier National Park has Montana interests worried about downstream environmental and economic impacts.
“The mining company has apparently made a business decision that investment in the Canadian Flathead may bear fruit for them,” said Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association. Hammerquist called the gold exploration “just one more example of an industrial land use that fails to recognize the importance of this area.”
Located about 10 miles north of the Montana border, the mining zone drains south into the North Fork Flathead River. That waterway forms the western edge of Glacier Park before spilling into Flathead Lake.
For decades, the two countries have battled over Canadian coal mining proposals, often pulling the federal governments into the fray.
Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]
From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .
The country’s national parks – iconic cultural emblems for millions – could hold the key for species protections in a warming world, according to a report released Monday.
“This is a unique moment in time,” said Tom Kiernan, “to leverage the power of America’s national parks for change.”
Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]
Looks like Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, as well as both of Montana’s Senators will be visiting the North Fork today. There’s the story from the Missoulian . . .
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will travel into the remote North Fork Flathead River Valley on Tuesday, a watershed long threatened by mining proposals from the Canadian north.
He will be accompanied by Montana’s Democratic U.S. senators, Jon Tester and Max Baucus.
Read the entire story . . . [link repaired]
Here’s an interesting article in today’s Missoulian discussing the renewed debate over designation and expansion of wilderness areas . . .
For more than three decades, millions of Montana federal acres have been de facto wilderness.
Over the past few weeks, those slumbering lands have been shoved back into the spotlight. And last Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the nation’s 40 million acres of “inventoried roadless lands” were properly protected by a 2001 Clinton administration prohibition on development.
But the 10th Circuit Court in Wyoming is deliberating on a mirror-reverse case, where a lower-court judge has declared the Clinton rule is wrong. That would leave standing a subsequent Bush administration rule allowing states to make their own rules governing federal roadless land.
And in between, Sen. Jon Tester’s proposed Forest Jobs and Recreation Act might open 1 million acres of Montana roadless land to logging, according to some of its critics.
Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]
Today’s Vancouver Sun has a first-rate article — with photos and video, no less — concerning the often contentious issues surrounding preservation of the Canadian Flathead Valley. Very nicely done. Recommended reading.
Here’s the lede . . .
GRIZZLY WIDE PASS — No one knows for sure when humans first discovered this impossible place.
Perhaps it happened on a warm summer evening like this one, an awe-struck group of backcountry travellers watching the mountain goats brave an amphitheatre of sheer rock atop southeastern B.C.’s Flathead Valley.