The "Crown of the Continent"

 

The unprotected Flathead Valley, sometimes called the “Crown of the Continent,” is a dazzling and deeply threatened wilderness in south eastern British Columbia.

Download Flathead map.

Often compared with the Okavango Delta and the Serengeti for its richness of species, the biologically-distinct Flathead Valley far too frequently evokes the word “last”. The Flathead is B.C.’s last unsettled low elevation valley: offering a rare convergence of multi-coloured wild flowers on its slopes and an unparalleled refuge for carnivore species like mountain lions, grizzlies, lynx and wolverines. The Flathead River, a free-flowing waterway that has never been dammed and whose shifting mosaic floodplain offers profuse bird habitat, is one of North America’s last wild rivers. Nestled along the U.S. border, Canada’s proposed Flathead Valley National Park presents a last chance to fill in the missing piece of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park-- established in 1932 as the world’s largest Peace Park--as well as the last chance to preserve a vital corridor for wildlife moving north and south through the Rocky Mountains.

Flathead Under Seige

Until very recently, the Flathead was spared development by the quirk of fate that Canada’s national railway line was forged through the adjacent Elk Valley, discouraging Flathead settlement. Today, in a series of swift incursions, the Flathead’s wildness is under siege by mountain-top removal coal mining and coalbed methane development near the river’s pristine headwaters. Burgeoning plans for new open pit coal mining and vast coalbed methane extraction threaten to sprawl across the world-class Flathead Valley, destroying its great wilderness, jeopardizing biodiversity and severely comprising the river’s exceptional water quality. Supporting new coal and coalbed methane developments that will increase greenhouse gas emissions simply does not make sense, especially given that the BC govenrment has legislated new CO2 carbon emissions reduction targets.

Mining and Coalbed Methane Development

Cline Mining’s proposed Lodgepole mountain top removal mine would see nearly 20 tonnes of tailings dumped onto the headwaters of the Flathead River each year. BP Canada Energy Company, a subsidiary of British Petroleum, plans to extract coalbed methane from an area greater than 500 square kilometres, straddling the Flathead and Elk watersheds. BP’s proposed Mist Mountain project will industrialize the pristine air, land and water of the Flathead with an expansive network of wells, roads, pipelines and compressors. Together, these industrial threats pose the threat of irreversible damage to one of southern Canada’s last unprotected wilderness jewels.

Take Action to Stop Coalbed Methane Development in BC.

Flathead: Missing Jewel in an International Crown

UNESCO has already designated both Waterton Lakes and Glacier National Parks as Biosphere Reserves, and has proclaimed the entire International Peace Park a World Heritage Site. Several organizations on both sides of the border have been working to protect the Flathead Valley, with the aim of eventually extending the International Peace Park and World Heritage Site to include one of the Earth’s most biologically important places. Alberta and Montana have already made their striking contributions to this transboundary park. Parks Canada has also included the Flathead National Park proposal in its existing five-year National Park completion strategy.

BC Government Must Do Its Part

The major impediment to conserving the “Crown of the Continent” is the provincial government of British Columbia. Coal interests carry considerable influence with the B.C. government, and the government claims it has not received much pressure from its constituents to protect the Flathead. Significant political and activist pressure from Montana and elsewhere in the U.S. has convinced the B.C. government that protection is primarily an American interest, and the government has no desire to be seen to cave in to foreign pressure.