Cry of threat unfounded
This cry of a threat to the Flathead and environmental fear mongering has been going on for decades and oddly enough the special values have not been harmed by the province’s management of the region but in fact enhanced if we can believe any of the environmental groups’ rhetoric.
The Geological Survey of Canada found oil seeps in the Flathead in 1892 and since then the Flathead has seen continuous human activities over the past century including logging and fighting a major pine beetle outbreak in the Akamina/Kishinena.
This without destroying its values. A 1983 Life magazine headlined “Montana’s Glacier Wilderness And Others Are Facing Ruin”, went on to call Glacier “the most endangered of all the (US) national parks” threatened by logging and mining in BC. Yet here in 2009 Wildsight still proclaims the Flathead “unmatched in North America “. I say kudos for the way B.C. has managed the area.
Despite potential billions of dollars in resource values in the Flathead our regional governance of this area has continued to see the highest standards used.
We have gone through numerous public land planning initiatives and the special values of the Flathead are respected, not threatened.
Consistent with the regional Land Plan and exploration guidelines, Max Resource Corp is exercising the right to explore their mineral tenure.
However, far from certain development, any mining project fortunate enough to find a minable deposit and proceed past the exploration stage must enter the stringent B.C. environmental assessment process and then may face a total duplication in the Federal environmental assessment process.
In the Flathead, a t
Although unpopular with some, it is worth noting that exploration, hunting/ trapping/fishing, mining, logging, and agriculture are B.C.’s Heritage. Yes UNESCO is visiting and the World Heritage Committee will note British Columbia’s regulations and policies are amongst the most rigorous and effective in the world as the Flathead clearly demonstrates.
Ross Stanfield
President, East Kootenay Chamber of Mines
http://www.thefreepress.ca/article/20090927/FERNIE0101/309279988/cry-of-...
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