Ban is Big News for Flathead

Government actions bring protection closer

A recent ban on mining, oil, gas and coalbed methane development in B.C.’s Flathead River Valley has conservationists applauding the B.C. government. 

The Province announced the ban in early February. Shortly after the announcement, B.C. and Montana signed an agreement to sustain environmental values in the entire Flathead River basin, a biodiversity heavyweight that straddles the border between B.C. and Montana.  

“This signals a new era of cooperation to protect the values of the Flathead River Valley,” said Casey Brennan, Wildsight’s Southern Rockies program manager. “Wildsight commends Premier Gordon Campbell for banning these activities in this very special place.” 

Wildsight and other groups would like to see the Province take two additional actions. 

“The first step,” Brennan said, “would be to establish a national park in the lower third of the B.C. Flathead River Valley. This would help the Flathead ecosystem maintain its biodiversity in the face of climate change. 

“The second step would be to designate a wildlife management area in the rest of the valley and its adjoining habitat,” he said. “Animals need to be able to move from the Flathead River watershed up to Banff National Park. They need this connectivity to maintain viable populations.” 

The Flathead River Valley has North America’s greatest diversity of large carnivore populations, a number of threatened and endangered species, Canada’s most diverse plant population and more grizzly bears per square kilometer than anywhere else in inland North America. 

“The Flathead River Valley has globally significant wildlife populations,” Brennan said. “The ban on mining is excellent—but the park and the wildlife management area are needed, too.

“Wild values are disappearing all over the planet,” Brennan said. “Here in the Flathead we have one of the nation’s crowning examples of wildlife and ecosystem biodiversity. We will keep working until permanent, real protection is established under provincial and federal law.”