From the Wednesday, November 21, 2007 online edition of the Hungry Horse News . . .
It was a last-minute decision, and I
Category Archives: News
Mining issues getting noticed in B.C.
From the Wednesday, November 21, 2007 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Potential industrial development in the Canadian Flathead drainage is gaining a higher profile in British Columbia, with possible environmental consequences that would counter international law, Canadian speakers said at a gathering Monday in Whitefish.
Richard Paisley, an international water law expert from the University of British Columbia, was among the speakers at an open house sponsored by the Flathead Coalition, a group of Montanans concerned about potential coal and gas development north of the border.
Paisley said there is a growing body of international law that supports the position that fish, wildlife and water resources in Montana
Fears in US that Canada mining threatens pristine nature park
From an AFP article (including some very nice photos) posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 . . .
Two ambitious energy exploration projects in western Canada are raising fears among US environmentalists of irreversible ecological damage to a pristine expanse of the famed Rocky Mountains.
Read the entire article . . .
Montana worried about Flathead wastewater
From the Wednesday, November 7, 2007 online edition of The Globe and Mail . . .
Another skirmish is brewing in the continuing battle between British Columbia and Montana over potential resource development north of the border and its impact on rivers flowing into the United States.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is now questioning the province’s commitment to prevent any coal-bed methane (CBM) projects from dumping wastewater from gas wells into drainages that eventually flow south to Montana.
At the same time, he is raising concerns about a phosphate exploratory drilling project in the same area, recently completed by privately held Paget Resources Corp. of Vancouver.
The more pressing issue, from Mr. Schweitzer’s perspective, is a CBM pilot project run by junior exploration company Storm Cat Energy Corp. of Denver. The company confirmed it has a permit from the B.C. government to discharge wastewater from its pilot project into Brit Creek, a tributary of the Elk River. The Elk River flows into Lake Koocanusa, which straddles the B.C.-Montana border.
Read the entire article . . .
Groups express concern about coal-bed plans
From the Saturday, November 3, 2007 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Several Montana conservation groups are concerned about plans to expand a coal-bed methane operation with continued discharge of wastewater into an Elk River tributary.
And, a mining company was reportedly test drilling last month for phosphate deposits in the Cabin Creek area, a tributary to the North Fork Flathead River.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he recently learned that the company, which he did not identify, drilled test wells from Oct. 18 to 23, with permission from the provincial government.
Read the entire article . . .
More Proposed Mining in the Canadian Flathead
From the Friday, November 2, 2007 online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .
Montana’s senior U.S. senator and several conservation groups said Friday they are alarmed anew about prospects for industrial work in southeastern British Columbia, north of Montana’s Glacier National Park.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said another mining project that he finds “potentially devastating” is planned at the headwaters of the North Fork Flathead River. The North Fork forms the western boundary of Glacier and flows into Montana’s Flathead Lake. Opponents of mining in the southeastern area of the province say the work could harm water quality downstream in Montana.
The National Parks Conservation Association and others Friday raised concern about a different matter. They expressed alarm about water disposal for what they said will be the province’s first commercial production of coal-bed methane. Extracting methane from coal seams brings forth salty water, and its disposal is controversial.
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Remote chance: Polebridge Mercantile is for sale
From the Sunday, October 21, 2007 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
You lose things as you travel north.
First to go is the cell phone connection, lost before you’re barely out of town.
Then the power lines disappear, then the driveways.
No houses, no streetlights, no billboards.
When you lose the pavement, you’re still just a dozen miles out of town, “but you have the feeling you’ve crossed a boundary,” said Deb Kaufman.
[…]
That the Polebridge Mercantile, full of food and coffee and people, has not fallen derelict here so far from the grid, so close to the Canadian line, is testament to the vision of Kaufman and her husband, Dan, as well as to their remarkable baking skills.
That’s the real surprise within the surprise – this bakery in this mercantile in this far-flung landscape.
But it’s time now, Kaufman said, for another adventure, up yet another road into the unknown.
Read the entire article . . .
Polebridge hostel owner sells his keys to the world
Michael Jamison did a nice article on John Frederick’s pending retirement and the changing of the guard at the North Fork Hostel. It appeared in the Monday, October 15, 2007 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
His first impulse was to run, to turn tail and never look back at that ramshackle stack of logs the real estate agent kept calling a cabin.
Postal service woman and her wolf deliver into the wild
Karen Craver got a very nice write-up in the Monday, October 15, 2007 online edition of the Missoulian — another one of Michael Jamison’s excellent articles . . .
She calls him
From logging to gentrification
The Saturday, October 13, 2007 online edition of the New York Times carried an article on increased sales to private individuals of property on the margins of federal lands. A great deal of the story focuses on Montana and the Flathead Valley, in particular . . .
William P. Foley II pointed to the mountain. Owns it, mostly. A timber company began logging in view of his front yard a few years back. He thought they were cutting too much, so he bought the land.
Mr. Foley belongs to a new wave of investors and landowners across the West who are snapping up open spaces as private playgrounds on the borders of national parks and national forests.
Read the entire article . . .