Tag Archives: British Columbia

The grizzly revealed — with a Canadian perspective

Environmental Issues,

John Frederick passed this article along. I’ll let him do the intro: “This is a quite a different article on bears by Larry Pynn. It was posted 12 October 2013 by the Vancouver Sun…”

“Note that Bruce McLellan who is mentioned below had a cabin for many years across the Flathead River just a ways past the Canadian border and used a canoe to cross back and forth on the river to study bears.”

The Interior Salish know him as Kelowna or Kee-lau-naw, the Sechelt as Mayuk, and the Nisga’a as Lik’inskw.

Alaskans call him the brown bear. And to British Columbians he is the grizzly, a name that engenders respect, wonder and fear – sometimes all at once.

Even the Latin name commands attention: Ursus arctos horribilis.

No other animal better embodies the spirit of the wilderness than the grizzly, an animal that has no natural predators – other than humans and others of its kind – and is also the object of such unrelenting attention that it has generated competing multi-million-dollar industries designed both to kill it as a trophy and to photograph it as living keepsake.

Read more . . .

Legislation and forest plan work put North Fork in spotlight

News, , ,

The Daily Inter Lake has a fairly lengthy article on some recent events, both local and international, keeping the North Fork in the news. It’s a good read . . .

For all its remoteness, its small population and its tiny village capital of Polebridge, the North Fork Flathead River drainage has recently been the center of a lot of attention.

And it will continue to be, with Congress currently considering legislation tied directly to the drainage and with Flathead National Forest officials embarking on planning efforts that will affect federal lands west of Glacier National Park…

Meanwhile, the Flathead National Forest officially kicked off its latest forest plan revision process on Wednesday with a meeting that attracted nearly 40 people to discuss an assessment process that is now required under forest planning rules. Assessment involves evaluating existing information about ecological, economic, and social conditions and trends on the forest. The following day, there was a forest planning field trip to the North Fork that attracted about 35 people, reflecting high interest in that portion of the Flathead Forest…

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Canada to exclude Flathead Valley from planned sale of dominion coal blocks

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

According to our friends north of the border, the Canadian federal government will not be making lands available for coal development within their section of the trans-boundary Flathead River Valley . . .

Flathead Wild, a coalition of conservation groups dedicated to protecting the Flathead Valley in the East Kootenay, welcomes the federal government’s announcement that it will exempt portions of the Dominion Coal Blocks within the Flathead Valley from a planned sale of federal lands. At the same time, the groups remain concerned that inappropriate development of the coal blocks adjacent to the Valley could jeopardize water quality and wildlife populations.

“While details around the planned sale are not yet clear, we are encouraged that the Federal Government has confirmed that portions of the coal blocks overlapping with the Flathead River Watershed will not be included in the sale, and that discussions with the Province are under way to ensure the protection of the entire watershed from development” said John Bergenske, Wildsight.

Read more . . .

Motorcycle-chasing wolf creates quite a stir

News, ,

Here’s more information on that recent story about a motorcycle-chasing wolf . . .

Every once in a while, a news story comes a long that screams for attention.

An espionage case. A human-rights violation. A political scandal. A wolf chasing a motorcycle?

Believe it or not, the latter held its own among certain crowds recently.

The incident occurred June 8 when Tim Bartlett of Banff, Alberta, took his new Yamaha for a spin along Highway 93 in Canada’s Kootenay National Park.

Continue reading . . .

Report recommends park in Canadian Flathead, other protections

Environmental Issues, News, , , , , ,

The Wildlife Conservation Society Canada just issued a report making several recommendations to protect the Southern Canadian Rockies, including the Flathead Valley. Besides a new provincial park and a set of wildlife management areas, the report also encourages wilderness designations on the U.S. side of the border . . .

A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada) creates a conservation strategy that will promote wildlife resiliency in the Southern Canadian Rockies to the future impacts of climate change and road use. The report’s “safe passages and safe havens” were informed in part by an assessment of six iconic species — bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, grizzly bears, wolverines, mountain goats and bighorn sheep — five of which were ranked as highly vulnerable to projected changes.

Nestled between Glacier National Park in Montana and Banff National Park in Canada, the Southern Canadian Rockies (SCR) has been overshadowed by these towering icons of mountain splendour. Yet this southern section contains spectacular landscapes, supports one of the most diverse communities of carnivores and hoofed mammals in North America, and is a stronghold for the six vulnerable species that have been vanquished in much of their former range further south…

Weaver recommends a portfolio of conservation lands including a ‘Southern Canadian Rockies Wildlife Management Area’ (WMA) that would conserve 66% of key habitats on 54% of its land base. The WMA designation would emphasize fish and wildlife values while allowing other responsible land uses. The trans-border Flathead River basin adjacent to Waterton Lakes-Glacier National International Peace Parks also merits very strong conservation consideration, says Weaver, due to its remarkable biological diversity. He endorses a new National or Provincial Park on the B.C. side and Wilderness areas on the Montana side.

Continue reading . . .

Additional reading:

Full “Safe Haven…” report, courtesy Dr. John Weaver

Extract from report listing North Fork recommendations

British Columbia criticized for foot-dragging on World Heritage Committee recommendations

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

A coalition of Canadian environmental groups is not happy with the progress shown by British Columbia and the Canadian federal government on implementing U.N. World Heritage Committee recommendations for the protection of the Elk and Flathead valleys . . .

B.C. Government Ignores World Heritage Committee Recommendations for Flathead and Elk Valleys

The B.C. and federal governments have failed to act on World Heritage Committee recommendations aimed at protecting a globally-significant wildlife corridor that includes the Flathead River Valley, conservation groups said today.

“The World Heritage Committee was very clear about the need to secure this important connection for wildlife,” said Wildsight Executive Director John Bergenske. “Yet new mines are planned for the Elk Valley without a full cumulative effects analysis–at the same time as the Auditor General warns that B.C. is failing to protect biodiversity.”

In a report card released today, the third anniversary of the Flathead energy and mining ban announced in February 2010, conservation groups assess progress on five detailed recommendations made by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

The recommendations speak to the need for: a single conservation and wildlife management plan; prioritizing natural ecological values and wildlife conservation; a long-term moratorium on mining in southeastern B.C to ensure wildlife connectivity; improved coordination between the governments of B.C. and Montana, and; expanding Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park into part of the Flathead.

The report card concludes that the B.C. government has failed to comply with most of these key recommendations. It also points to a federally-owned coal block in the Flathead that is exempt from the B.C. ban on mining.

Continue reading . . .

Funding goal reached as part of deal to protect trans-boundary Flathead

Environmental Issues, News, , , , , ,

Since the announcement last week that the funding goal for money to compensate companies for losses when the Canadian Flathead was closed to development had been reached there’s been a fair amount of press coverage, mostly in the Canadian prfess. The Hungry Horse News this week put a nice, local spin on the event . . .

Bob Patterson, of Oregon, was slinging a line in the North Fork of the Flathead River last week, catching small cutthroat in a run at Glacier Rim.

He’d been on a big looping tour of famous waters in Canada and the U.S., but this was the first stop where he was getting into fish, even if they were small ones.

Patterson said he gave money to the Nature Conservancy’s campaign to compensate mining interests in the headwaters of the river and forever end the threat of mining and energy exploration in the Canadian Flathead. When asked why he did it, he shrugged.

“I’m always for the fish,” he said.

Continue reading . . .

Funding goal reached for Canadian Flathead compensation fund

Environmental Issues, News, , , , ,

It looks like the funding goal for money to compensate companies for losses when the Canadian Flathead was closed to development has been reached . . .

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (“NCC”) and The Nature Conservancy (“TNC”) today announced that, through a collaboration of public and private partners, more than $10 million has been raised to help remove the biggest ecological threat to British Columbia’s Flathead River Valley — a spectacular wilderness area that straddles the Canada-U.S. border.

Thanks to the generous funding contributions from the Government of Canada’s Natural Areas Conservation Program (NACP); Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing; and other private donors, the Canadian portion of the Flathead River Valley is now permanently protected from mining and other sub-surface development.

The Government of Canada contributed $5.4 million to the project through the NACP for the conservation of the Flathead River Valley. Warburg Pincus is contributing $2.5 million to the project–the largest private contribution.

The funding is being used by the British Columbia government to implement the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, which was passed last year. The legislation permanently prohibits coal mining as well as exploration and development of oil, gas and mineral resources on nearly 400,000 acres (160,000 hectares) of land in southeast British Columbia.

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“Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent” to be held in Fernie this year

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The NFPA sent representatives to last year’s annual Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent in Polson. By all reports, it was a good experience. This year’s event is scheduled for September 27-28 in Fernie, BC.

The Roundtable has a pretty broad reach, including people, communities and organizations with a wide range of interests. Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

The Crown of the Continent is a remarkable place. Spanning the 49th parallel and anchored by Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, it has been the home of Native Americans and First Nations for thousands of years. Today, the stunning scenery, vast wilderness areas, iconic wildlife, and diverse recreational opportunities attract visitors from throughout the world. These amenities support a ring [of] communities around the Crown. Working landscapes help knit together the natural and cultural fabric of this region.

The Roundtable is an ongoing forum to bring together people who care about this special place . . .

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Cline sues B.C. over Canadian Flathead mining ban

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

As mentioned last Wednesday, Cline Mining, the outfit that planned an open pit coal mine in the North Fork headwaters area up in Canada, sued British Columbia over its decision a couple of years ago to ban mining and other extractive industries in the Canadian Flathead. The story has since gotten quite a bit of coverage on both sides of the border. One of the better follow-up articles was just posted by the Missoulian . . .

The decades-long dispute over a proposed mining ban on the northern edge of Glacier National Park flared up this week when a Canadian mining company filed a lawsuit against the Province of British Columbia seeking $500 million in compensation for lost revenue.

In the lawsuit, Cline Mining Corp. alleges that the government of B.C. expropriated three coal properties in the Canadian Flathead Valley by passing the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, a recent piece of legislation that halted mining on all lands within the Flathead River watershed.

Cline lost its coal claims in the Flathead Valley in southeast B.C. when former Premier Gordon Campbell signed the Flathead Watershed Area Memorandum of Understanding with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, reversing a longstanding land use plan for the Canadian Flathead that gave drilling and mining primacy over all other uses.

Continue reading . . .