UN seeks Flathead Valley mining moratorium

A United Nations report has recommended a moratorium on mining in the controversial Flathead Valley of southeastern B.C. and development of a comprehensive transboundary conservation and wildlife management plan for the area, a U.S. official revealed Thursday.

A United Nations report has recommended a moratorium on mining in the controversial Flathead Valley of southeastern B.C. and development of a comprehensive transboundary conservation and wildlife management plan for the area, a U.S. official revealed Thursday.

Stephen Morris, chief of international affairs for the National Park Service, said in an interview from Washington, D.C., that he has received a copy of a fact-finding mission report by two UN world heritage representatives who visited the area in September.

The authors are Kishore Rao of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Center in Paris and New Zealander Paul Dingwall of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Morris said the report, almost 50 pages long, suggests that any mining in B.C.'s Flathead could have a negative impact on neighbouring Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

The report points to human-caused stressors already faced by wildlife on both sides of the border and the growing impact of climate change. It also specifically recommends improved connectivity for wildlife through the Crowsnest Pass area, Morris said.

Naomi Yamamoto, minister of state for intergovernmental relations, said she has not read the report but that provincial staff are putting together a response.

She said there has been sustainable forestry and recreational use in the Flathead Valley over the years, and that the absence to date of an active mine is evidence of the "stringent rules" that would accompany mining in such a "very special place."

Larry Ostola, director-general of national historic sites for Parks Canada, could not be reached to comment in Ottawa.

Harvey Locke, conservation vice-president of the Wild Foundation based in Colorado, said he is not surprised that "international experts would draw the same conclusion as the majority of East Kootenay residents, namely that the beautiful Flathead Valley with its world-class ecological values is no place for mining or oil and gas."

The report will be officially presented to the July meeting of the UNESCO world heritage committee in Brazil. Canada and the U.S. will also offer their own responses to that meeting.

Last June, UNESCO's 21-member world heritage committee voted unanimously at a meeting in Seville, Spain, to send a mission to "evaluate and provide recommendations on the requirements for ensuring the protection" of the park.

The Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C. named the Flathead the province's most endangered river in 2009, while American Rivers rated the U.S. side of the Flathead the fifth most endangered.

Conservationists are pushing for 45,000 hectares, including the Flathead River east to the continental divide at Waterton Lakes National Park, to be folded into Waterton.

Another 300,000 hectares west of the Flathead River and north to Banff National Park would be declared a provincial wildlife management area. Such a designation would allow connectivity to other protected areas to the north and would allow logging, hunting and all-terrain vehicles respectful of wildlife values.

Mining, coal-bed methane or oil and gas extraction would be allowed, but not in the Flathead Valley itself.

Waterton-Glacier became an international peace park in 1932 and a 457,614-hectare UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, incorporating Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta and Glacier National Park in Montana. The park is situated on the eastern Rocky Mountains at the western edge of the Great Plains and straddles the Continental Divide