East Kootenay Residents Land Use Coalition

It is rumoured that Hillary Clinton may wish to add her name to the list of proponents for a National Park in the Flathead Valley of South Eastern BC.  It is a concern of BC residents that many voices from the US have jumped on this "bandwagon" without doing their homework or taking into consideration the real needs, local wishes, or the economic consequences to British Columbians.

1. The residents in the Elk valley do not want a National Park in the Flathead.  They want to hunt and fish and access the land responsibly as they have for more than a century.  Wildlife are flourishing, populations are healthy.  Grizzly bear numbers have been on the steady increase since the 1980's.
2. The public stakeholder-driven Southern Rocky Mountains Management Plan provides adequate protection for the Flathead.  The conservation-minded people who've lived here for generations and recreate in the area know it best.
3. Control and decision making are presently in the hands of locals; National Park decisions are made in Ottawa and with UNESCO in France if World Heritage Site status is applied.
4. Does anyone think that National Parks are well funded or managed?
   

MANAGING THE FLATHEAD

The eastern half of my Riding, next to Alberta, consists of two river valleys: the Elk River drainage and the Flathead River drainage.

The Elk River drainage starts high in the mountains to thenorth that separate Kananaskis  in Alberta from our Elk Lakes ProvincialPark. The valley is still high elevation at Elkford but decreases inelevation as it meanders south to Sparwood and then swings west through Fernie.

The Honourable Stan Hagen, minister for Sustainable Resource Management, announced the Southern Rocky Mountains Management Plan on August 28, 2003. We support the SRMMP because of the public process and because the plan does a pretty good job of balancing wilderness values with recreation and industry.

The Southern Rocky Mountain Conservation Area was a faux pas on the part of the former NDP govern­ment and local conservation groups that may not last, says East Kootenay MLA-elect Bill Bennett,

"That's a very real possibility,” Bennett said.

Bennett's statement was spurred by comments made in a meeting between Rob Neil, habitat biolo­gist with the Ministry of Sustainable Resources (for­merly the Ministry of Environment Lands and Parks) and a diverse and large group of Elk Valley stake­holders concerned with land use issues,