Further information on the proposed Cline mine’s impact on bull trout from the Canada.com web site . . .

U.S. government scientists studying the Flathead River watershed straddling the B.C.-Montana border say they’ve discovered the prime spawning site for a threatened species of trout – on the Canadian side of the system, and in the very shadow of a proposed mountaintop coal mine that drew fire from U.S. president-elect Barack Obama during his drive to the White House.

Biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Montana state Wildlife Department say the findings pinpoint the mouth of Foisey Creek in southeastern B.C. – near the planned site of a controversial open-pit coal operation proposed by Toronto-based Cline Mining Corp. – as a “critical” site in the life-cycle of the protected bull trout, which often migrates from U.S. waters to Canada to reproduce.

It’s a discovery, the scientists say, that adds to previous evidence showing threats to the watershed’s population of cross-border cutthroat trout, and which should clinch the environmental case against the mine.

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From the Friday, November 28, 2008 online edition of the Missoulian . . .

A controversial Canadian coal mine, proposed high in the headwaters above Glacier National Park, would be built atop the most productive bull trout spawning habitat in the entire river basin.

“That site, immediately below the proposed mine site, is incredibly important bull trout habitat,” said Mark Deleray, a fisheries biologist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

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(Link updated on 30 November. The darn Missoulian sometimes changes the link when they archive articles.)