ConservationNEXT

Sierra Club of British Columbia

Website
http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca
Contact Name
Sarah Cox
Contact Email
sarah@antispamsierraclub.bc.ca
Location
Victoria, BC

Sierra Club BC is a non-profit environmental organization whose mission is to protect and restore British Columbia’s rich tapestry of species and ecosystems. We have been a leader in many successful campaigns to protect forests and wilderness, including the Great Bear Rainforest, Clayoquot Sound, South Moresby, the Khutzeymateen and  Carmanah Valley. 

Conservation Alliance helps fund our Flathead River Valley campaign, which seeks to protect a globally-significant wilderness in the southeast corner of BC. The Flathead adjoins Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, a World Heritage Site and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

The Flathead, compared to Africa's Serengeti for its richness of species, is under threat from a proposal for mountain-top removal coal mining and other energy and mining development. If the coal mine is approved by the BC government, the US Department of the Interior says heavy metals and other contaminants will reach the US border and Glacier National Park in less than 24 hours through the Flathead River.

The Flathead has the highest density of grizzly bears in the interior of North America, and the highest density and diversity of carnivores on the continent. Water in the Flathead River is so pure that scientists use it as a benchmark by which to measure water quality in rivers around the world.

Sierra Club BC and 10 other US and Canadian conservation groups recently petitioned the World Heritage Committee to declare Waterton-Glacier a World Heritage Site in Danger due to the proposed Flathead coal mine and other threats. The committee will consider our petition at its Seville, Spain session in late June 2009. Learn more at www.sierraclub.bc.ca

We aim to protect the lower one-third of the Flathead River Valley as a National Park and to establish a Wildlife Management Area in the rest of the valley and adjoining habitat.

We are sharing our Conservation Alliance funds with two other organizations involved in the Flathead campaign, Wildsight and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.  

 

Project Update

Great news!

The B.C. government recently announced a ban on mining and energy development in the Flathead River Valley, adjoining Glacier National Park. The ban is a vital first step towards permanent protection for the Flathead, and one that we’ve asked for.

Now we must build on our momentum. The Flathead is home to rare and threatened species like grizzly bears and tailed frogs, and it has some of the world’s purest water. This ecological jewel deserves full protection.

Sierra Club BC will continue to work for a National Park in the south eastern one-third of the Flathead River Valley, to fill in the missing piece of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. The Flathead deserves the same level of protection that Alberta and Montana have given their share of the same Crown of the Continent ecosystem—National Park status. It’s also crucial that we establish a Wildlife Management Area in the rest of the valley and adjoining habitat—to preserve North America’s longest remaining wildlife corridor and give wildlife a change to adapt to climate change.