Flathead Wild Film Premieres at Wild & Scenic Film Festival
Proposed mountaintop removal mining in southeastern British Columbia, Canada is threatening one of America’s most endangered rivers and North America’s wildest remaining valley — The Flathead. A new film — Flathead Wild — follows the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) as they descend on the Flathead River Valley, along with local conservation groups, to make breathtaking and iconic images of the threatened ecosystem. These images then act as tools for the Flathead coalition to help tip the scales in favor of protection and conservation. Flathead Wild will premiere at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival at the Nevada Theater in Nevada City, Calif. Saturday, Jan. 16. Flathead Wild is also now available online.
“We need strong, credible images to give a voice to places that cannot speak for themselves,” said Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP’s executive director. “It’s so easy for mining companies to claim that there’s nothing in the Flathead — so we used our cameras to show how much there is to be lost. Images are irrefutable evidence of the beauty of our planet and the critical resources we can’t afford to lose.”
The Flathead Valley is comprised of nearly 400,000 acres of wilderness located in southeastern British Columbia, straddling the Canada/U.S. border. Home to the most grizzly bears per acre of anywhere in the interior of North America and the pristine Flathead River, the Flathead Valley is the only unsettled, low-elevation valley of its kind in Western Canada.
Conservation groups believe that this region, particularly the Flathead River Valley, deserves better protection and stewardship than the province is currently providing. The Southern Rocky Mountain Management Plan allows for mining and energy activities to proceed without being restrained by any planning objectives or land use designations, including a “two-zone” mining policy that leaves all areas except those in parks open to mining, energy exploration and extraction.
“Change is inevitable, but we have the opportunity here to protect an irreplaceable wildland and natural resource. If we let the Flathead fall to mining pressures — we will never be able to bring it back,” said Ryland Nelson, the Southern Rockies program coordinator of Wildsight. “With a free-flowing, pristine river and the highest concentration of inland grizzlies in North America, the Flathead Valley is one of the most biologically important places on earth — we have to act now for our environment, wildlife and present and future generations.”
Filmed and produced by the conservation and adventure filmmakers of the Epicocity Project, Flathead Wild will premiere at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 16 at the Nevada Theater (401 Broad Street) in Nevada City, Calif. Other partners involved in the production of this film include: LightHawk, The Wild Foundation, National Parks Conservation Association, Alpine Aire Foods, Wilburforce Foundation, The Sierra Club, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and Flathead Wild.
Watch the Flathead Wild film: http://www.vimeo.com/7775085
Learn more about the Flathead WILD campaign: http://www.flathead.ca/
Learn more about iLCP’s Flathead RAVE campaign: http://www.ilcp.com//?cid=193
For the Film Festival schedule and upcoming tour dates, visit:http://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/
Contact:
Ryland Nelson, Wildsight: ryland@wildsight.ca or 250.531.0445
Jenny Nichols, iLCP: jenny@ilcp.com or 703. 341. 2707
Andy Maser, Epicocity Project: amaser@mac.com or 541.521.3076
