What makes the Flathead so special?

The Flathead River Valley is a window to our past and a hotspot for biological diversity. Tucked into BC's southeast corner, the Flathead is a modern-day Noah’s Ark for many species that have been squeezed into a Rocky Mountain ribbon of green, as their age-old habitat vanishes due to human activity. The Flathead is an essential link in the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.

The Flathead is home to an astounding 16 species of carnivores, ranging from the tiny marten to the towering grizzly. Six species of hoofed animals (ungulates), roam the spacious valley bottom and serrated mountain tops—including elk, bighorn sheep, moose and mountain goat. There are more grizzly bears here than anywhere else in the interior of North America, and the greatest density and diversity of carnivores on the continent.

Canada's Serengeti

The Flathead’s location, at the narrowest point in the Rocky Mountain chain, means that it is a mixing zone for plant species from north, south, east and west. Purple camas found in coastal Gary Oak meadows grows cheek by jowl with northern plants like the petite and hardy Arctic gentian. The Flathead is home to the greatest diversity of vascular plants in all of Canada and is compared to Africa’s Serengeti for its richness of plant species. Forty percent of all plant species found in B.C. grow in the Flathead. 

In spring and summer, more than 1,000 wildflower species carpet the region’s slopes. Bear grass blooms profusely in five to seven year cycles, draping hillsides in creamy white blossoms. Big horned sheep and elk devour the tiny blossoms, while mountain goats graze on the stalks. Bears eat the leaf sheaths in spring. 

A last wild river 

The Flathead is one of North America’s last wild rivers. It flows across the border into the state of Montana, where it forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park.

Water in the Flathead is so pure that scientists like Dr. Rick Hauer, from the Flathead Lakes Biological Station in Montana, use it as a benchmark for measuring water quality in rivers around the world. The free-flowing Flathead River supports native populations of threatened bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, mountain whitefish and sculpin. The primitive tailed frog, Canada’s only stream-dwelling frog, is one of many at-risk species found in the Flathead.

Oldest fossils in the world 

Once covered by an ancient sea, Flathead mountains are known for their radiant green and red rocks that make these “the most colourful mountains in Canada,” according to legendary writer and naturalist Andy Russell. As you climb a Flathead mountain, you can see rippled waves from the primordial ocean embedded in slabs of stone. Some Flathead rocks contain fossils of the oldest life form on Earth—stromatolites, or circular algal mats preserved in rocks.

National Geographic's "Crown of the Continent" 

National Geographic magazine calls this region the “Crown of the Continent” ecosystem because water from this transboundary area flows to all three oceans surrounding North America. According to National Geographic, the Crown of the Continent is “one of the most diverse and ecologically intact natural ecosystems in the temperate zones of the world.” 

With the notable exception of the BC Flathead, much of the Crown of the Continent ecosystem has been permanently protected. Together, Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta and Glacier National Park in Montana form the world’s International Peace Park. The United Nations considered this intact ecosystem to be of such outstanding value to humanity that it has designed the park a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve.