Conservation groups are calling on the public to pressure the federal government to establish permanent protection for the Flathead River Valley as a national park.
The low elevation valley is almost untouched by human development and boasts not only one of the most pristine rivers in North America, but is considered one of the most biologically important places on the planet.
Last year, the B.C. government put a ban on all mining and oil and gas exploration in the valley, but those working to protect the area say that’s not enough.
They want the area to be included in Waterton National Park to complete the world’s first international peace park with Glacier National Park to the south in Montana.
Yelowstone to Yukon executive director Rob Buffler called the Flathead one of the most important places in the Y2Y region that needs protection.
“This landscape represents the finest remaining intact ecosystem in the world,” Bufler said.
In addition to protection, groups like Y2Y are calling for the area to be connected through a proposed wildlife management area to the Canadian Rocky Mountain National Parks.
Protecting both areas would nearly double the size of Waterton National Park by adding 234,000 hectares to it and is a vital step to connecting Yellowstone in the U.S. to the Yukon for wildlife movement.
One of the supporting groups is Wildsight, and Southern Rockies program manager Casey Brennan said one of the many key reasons the Flathead is special is its grizzly bear population. Wildsight works to protect the Columbia and Rocky Mountain ecoregions.
Brennan said the valley has the highest density of non-coastal grizzlies in North America and is core habitat for the species.
But it is not just grizzlies that use the valley. With a total of 16 species of carnivores alone, the biodiversity of the river valley is unmatched, said Brennan.
“Not only is it a great place for animals, it is an amazing place for plants,” he said, adding it has the greatest diversity of vascular plants as well as aquatic diversity. “There are not any valleys like this left. That is what we really have here, an ecological opportunity – we need to keep this place as it is now.”
Harvey Locke, a founder of Y2Y, has been working with groups seeking to protect the Flathead.
“It is a place that needs national attention,” he said. “It is a really special place… it has the wild qualities of the Cascade River Valley, but it is longer and at a lower elevation, making it ecologically richer.”
At a low elevation, the valley bottom is uniquely intact without any ranching, tourism, resource extraction or development.
The valley sits at a point referred to as the Crown of the Continent, one of two hydrological apexes in North America.
As the last intact ecosystem of its kind, Brennan said it should be part of the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park.
“It is not an accident there is a huge effort going on to protect and maintain what we have here.”
Last year, just before the Olympics, the B.C. government announced it would ban mining and energy extraction in the valley.
While conservationists say that is a first step, they contend permanent protection is the only answer to protect the ecosystem into the future.
The peace park was established in 1932 and sees the Flathead bordered on the Alberta and U.S. sides with national parks.
Brennan said in addition to completing that world heritage site with protection for the Flathead, a wildlife management area should also be established to connect it with Kananaskis Country and the mountain national parks to the north and take a step towards completing Yellowstone to Yukon corridor.
It is just over the ridge from the Flathead, in Elk Valley, where five large open pit coal mines are in operation.
Conservationists warn allowing mining or coal bed methane in the valley would ruin the river, which is the cleanest on the continent and connects all life in the ecosystem.
To the south in Montana, mineral rights have been removed from the river due to concerns from those who use it as their source for drinking water.
Sarah Cox with the Sierra Club said it was 100 years ago that John “Kootenai” Brown wrote to the prime minister to say the obvious place to expand Waterton was into the Flathead valley.
She said when groups originally approached the government of B.C. to seek protection they were told it has not been demonstrated as an issue – that is when Flathead Wild was formed.
“We were told this is a non- issue and we have to demonstrate there are enough people who want protection,” Cox said.
Now that there has been a ban on mining and energy extraction, the Flathead Wild campaign is calling on the public to push for permanent protection.
Part of the campaign to increase awareness of the Flathead’s pristine nature saw the International League of Conservation Photographers invited to document the area’s beauty.
In addition, delegates were sent to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in 2009 to petition the group to declare Waterton National Park as threatened.
The committee voted unanimously to send a delegation to B.C. to investigate the oil, gas and mining proposals in the area.
In 2010, the committee issued a report opposing development in the Flathead and supporting a trans-boundary wildlife conservation area.
Cox said protection against resource extraction is great, but “only a third of what we are asking for.
“It is a great first step but it is not permanent protection.”
