From the Wednesday, August 6, 2008 online edition of The Guardian, a widely-read British newspaper . . .

It has been called one of North America’s wildest places. Just north of the US-Canada border, the wooded slopes of the Canadian Rockies channel unpolluted water into a valley that remains free of human development. Grizzly bears, cougars and wolverines prowl the banks of the Flathead river. Outside of a national park, there is probably no wilderness like it on the continent.

But outside of a national park could mean outside of legal protection. Somewhere in the workings of the British Columbia government, an application from global energy company BP is working its way around civil servants’ desks. In it, the firm outlines a proposal that has horrified local environmentalists: the installation of up to 1,500 gas wells covering an area of 500 sq km (310 sq miles) amid the lush 1,580 sq km wilderness of the Flathead. Some time during the next six months, officials may give approval to the project.

“There have to be some places on the planet where you don’t go for energy production,” says Jack Stanford, a biologist at the nearby University of Montana. “This is one of them.”

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“Montana’s News Station” (a collection of 7 TV stations, including KAJ in Kalispell and KPAX in Missoula) has been doing a series of short segments on the proposed Cline Mine and BP coalbed methane projects in the Canadian North Fork and Elk Valley areas around Fernie, BC. They even managed to get a news crew into the area around the Cline Mine site. There are four videos posted as of today, with more scheduled. Viewing the videos requires the Internet Explorer web browser.

Link to the videos . . .

From the Monday, July 21, 2008 online edition of the Missoulian . . .

Polite diplomacy appears to be trumping the historic conversation of conflict between Canadian officials intent on mining energy resources and downstream residents worried the development could taint Montana waterways.

“The nature and the tenor of the discussion are absolutely changing,” said Louisa Willcox, senior wildlife specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “I think it’s become far more civil, courteous and honest – and hopefully more productive.”

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From the Saturday, July 19, 2008 online edition of the Missoulian . . .

A federal judge in Missoula has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts in the fall.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring protections for wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent.

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From the Thursday, July 17, 2008 online edition of the Hungry Horse News . . .

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, legislation that protects some 219 miles of waterway on the Flathead National Forest.

While the Act was passed in 1968, local rivers protected under the Act — the North Fork of the Flathead, the Middle Fork of the Flathead and the South Fork of the Flathead — were not included until 1976.

In that year, oil and gas exploration as well as Canadian coal mines were all threatening the North Fork — a situation that isn’t far removed today.

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