Ryland has been busy
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Submitted by gadzuk on Fri, 15/05/2009 - 7:50am.
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 Joined: 08-05-2008 |
Flathead plight in U.N. Spotlight Sen. Max Baucus last week said he would push to have the North Fork of the Flathead designated as a World Heritage Site in Danger, a dubious distinction as Glacier National Park turns 100 next year. The North Fork will see the international limelight in June, when Will Hammerquist, the Glacier representative of the National Park Conservation Association and Ryland Nelson, of the Canadian environmental organization Wildsight, will testify in front of a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage panel. Several groups on both sides of the border petitioned UNESCO last year to have the North Fork listed, including the Flathead Basin Commission and the Flathead Coalition. Both groups have members with broad interests, but all agree the North Fork should be protected. "It's rare to have a petition accepted and put on the agenda," Hammerquist said Monday. He said the Canadian representation was paramount to their case. "It's not an 'us versus them,'" he said. The North Fork is largely protected on the U.S. side of the border and makes up the western border of Glacier National Park. In Canada the landscape is just as pristine, but is currently threatened by a coal mine, coal bed methane development, gold mines and phosphate mines. Baucus met with Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson recently to air his concerns. "I told Mr. Wilson this about protecting our outdoor heritage for future generations and preserving good paying jobs in this challenging economy," Baucus said. "The Flathead River is a treasure, not just to Montana but to the entire region, including Canada. That is why I have consistently fought to make sure that it is protected from damaging mining operations and why I'll continue to do all I can to keep this land the Last Best Place." Glacier Park is already a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage site. The North Fork would be the only U.S. and Canadian site currently on the list. Yellowstone and the Everglades have previously been on the list, but were taken off. The Yellowstone, too, was threatened by mining until a solution was reached, and a plan is in the works to protect the Everglades. The designation is a political black eye for a region, but also raises awareness that generally results in positive action. Hammerquist noted that the UNESCO panel doesn't necessarily have to list it as a site in danger, it could also make land management recommendations for an area. In the Canadian Flathead, one suggestion has been to expand Waterton Lakes Park to the river. Another would make it a primitive area where sustainable logging and other practices would be allowed, but mining wouldn't. The latter proposal seems to have more support in Canada. Mining interests, however, continue to push for exploration in the Flathead. "For the benefit of all citizens, the hidden value of minerals should be properly evaluated and considered as part of any discussion about land access and use," Gavin C. Dirom, president and CEO of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia said last month. "Along with recognizing other societal values, we need to better understand and be informed about the various mineral development opportunities that exist in the Flathead." |
Joined: 08-05-2008
[quote=gadzuk]Giving it a "Heritage Site in Danger" designation would put it on a list of other sites that have seen significant degradation in modern times, most from wars, strife, illegal logging and poaching.[/quote]
Does anyone who's been to the Flathead think there's been significant degradation? Any degredation? An improvement perhaps since the clear-cut of the 1980s during the last pine beetle epidemic?
Wildsight consumes millions in annual foreign foundation funding and is infatuated with taking away the management of this area from local conservationists and handing the keys to Ottawa, Washington and UNESCO.
Enough BS. There's no mining in the Flathead, no credible plans to mine, and the MLA is on-record opposing it. Wildsight's anti-hunting and animal-rights bias is causing a massive and well-funded distortion of the truth.
Contrary to what's being promoted, we're not half-blind kunckle-dragging neandrathals who "hate the environment". That kind of blind demonization may play in the US and French media, but it sure won't win any friends here.
Joined: 26-11-2008
The flathead is in better condition than other places closer around here (ridgemont, morrisey) that have bike trails cut all throughout. I really wish wildsight would just give up. Their views are outnumbered here (as we can see with the election results). Leave the fricken flathead alone! You don't have to turn it into a park to keep the mining out either. NO to the park, NO to mining there, and NO to wildsight.
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Say NO to Flathead Park!
Joined: 10-05-2009
it is unfortunate that it has come to this. Since mining was first proposed in the flathead in the 80's nothing substantial has been changed in the land use planning in the area to prevent it from happening. Even the recent BC liberal platform stated that any mining that takes place in the flathead would be "subject to environmental assessments" That doesn't say no to mining to me.
Sure "our" MLA has stated that he doesn't want to see mining in the flathead, but he hasn't done anything to make that a reality. Cline mine is still on the books and as recently as last year there has been active mineral exploration in the Flathead. With further exploration planned for this upcoming summer.
hopefully this stunt by wildsight will actually make BC take some action to change the land use plan for the area to remove mining from the list of acceptable land uses in the Flathead.
Joined: 08-05-2008
[quote=crazytimes]hopefully this stunt by wildsight will actually make BC take some action to change the land use plan for the area to remove mining from the list of acceptable land uses in the Flathead.[/quote]
A feisty enemy warrior, bloodily shorn of his arms and legs in the thick of battle, threatens to bite off his opponent's kneecap. A French military officer shouts such taunts as "I fart in your general direction" and "I wave my private parts at your aunties".
If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough!
Wildsight's choice of friends is remarkable. Senator Max Baucus is the very same protectionist flocktard who initiated such anti-Canadian initiatives as the softwood lumber tarriff and the closure of the Can-US border to cattle in the name of BSE.
http://www.businessedge.ca/article.cfm/newsID/7637.cfm
Baucus is about as popular in Victoria and Ottawa as Swine Flu.
Fortunately we're a sovereign country and the representatives elected by the people who live here don't think we need to "park any more land".
Joined: 10-05-2009
looks like baucus has some higher level support too
http://flathead.ca/video/obama-opposed-to-mining-in-the-flathead
Joined: 08-05-2008
Of course he is, however there's no mining in the Flathead, and no credible plans to mine. It won't happen.
Has Obama been to the Flathead, or does he perhaps receive his information from Baucus and a certain activist group which is paid millions in annual US foundation funding to do so?
http://ekaccess.ca/node/3
Could it be that Wildsight's future tax-free funding is enhanced by media spotlight such as this?
Now that he's in office do you suppose Big-'O' will do anything about US plans to drain a toxic lake from North Dakota into Manitoba's Red River?
http://www.water.ca/devils-lake.asp
[quote=water.ca]The Devils Lake diversion will have an impact that extends beyond its direct effects on fish populations and water quality. If North Dakota transfers even a small amount of water into the Sheyenne River, its ability to violate the Boundary Waters Treaty without consequence would show that neither Ottawa nor Washington is firmly committed to that legal regime.[/quote]
Absolutely Montana is our good neighbor and they have a right to be concerned about their water, and we need to be considerate of them. But they should know better than to listen to only one side of a story and then take a position.
We're a sovereign nation with laws and standards and our own duly elected democratic governments. Those local representatives take input from the whole constituency and consider the expensive needs of the tax-paying citizens of province and country to provide health care and infrastructure.
The Flathead is healthy and safe, we don't need to park any more land.