British Columbia Lieutenant Governor Steven Point on Tuesday announced new protections for the Canadian portion of the Flathead Valley, putting the area off limits to mining and drilling operations.
The announcement marks a major victory for environmentalists seeking to protect the ecological health of Waterton-Glacier International Peace
Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site straddling the Alberta-Montana
border.
Conservation groups petitioned the United Nations in 2008 to investigate proposed mining and drilling projects in the headwaters of the
Flathead River, located in the southeast corner of British Columbia.
Last month, a UN committee delivered a report to the governments of
Canada and the United States in response to the petition, recommending
a ban on mining in the Flathead Valley and the development of a
conservation and wildlife management plan for the Waterton-Glacier park.
"A new partnership with Montana will sustain the environmental values in the Flathead River Basin in a manner consistent with current forestry, recreation, guide outfitting and trapping uses. It will identify permissible land uses and establish new collaborative approaches to trans?boundary issues. Mining, oil and gas development and coalbed gas extraction will not be permitted in British Columbia's Flathead Valley," Point said during the Throne Speech, an annual address which identifies the Province's priorities for the coming year.
US-based conservation organizations praised the decision:
"Today's announcement marks an important step forward to protect the last undeveloped low-elevation valley in southern Canada, where grizzly bears, lynx and wolverines still roam beside pure waters that nurture rare native trout," said Tim Preso, staff attorney for the public-interest law firm Earthjustice.
