Turn the Flathead area into a National Park??

[Wanderlust]

Yes, You are right, everyone has the right to support what they want, but this region is already protected without turning it into a Park. A park will just close it down for eveyone, and I am sure even some busnisses will feel it. What I wonder is would you be so happy if it was the McBride region that was turned into a Park or shut down? Once they win in one area, you never know which area they will close down next. McBride? Revelstoke? Valemont?

I want to note that I am supportive of people and groups taking a stand. More people need to do it. You wonder if I would be happy if some of the McBride (Robson Valley) region was turned into a park or shut down.....are you familiar with the Kakwa area? Think caribou, sledding, extreme measures ie. predator control - wtf?I mentioned the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area in N. BC in an earlier post....some of the people who actually spearheaded this (and it took years) were in industry, trappers, and recreationalists. Would I be happy if some of this area around McBride was turned into park? Maybe......but management is everything. As is having a voice. It can't be just black and white, and some of the groups spearheading protection for the Flathead River Valley aren't seeing anything but, but also the ones against don't always see in colour either.

 

[InnOnTheBorder]

How about becoming a member of the Club. I have been saying this for years, " It's not a trail Pass, It's a back country access Pass". We need to be noticed. Is it all about grooming?? NOPE! How about summer maintinance, Keeping the trail clear year round, Keeping our Back Country access open year round!
Corbin country club ralley is this coming Sunday. I hope to C U There!

OH YA! We got a great dump of snow on Fri.

Curtis

 

[bcskier]

Wildsight and CPAWS are well funded and organized groups dedicated to eliminating motorized use of the back country.
The local clubs (Fernie Snowmobile Assn and Corbin Club) are the voice for snowmobilers to the government ...please support them by becoming a member.

Hosmersled they're dedicated to keeping everybody out of the back country not just motorized use.

Sure they will become alias with various bc user groups when they have bigger fish to fry such as the proposed coal bed methane. But when that dragon has been slayed they go after the individual groups,limiting hunters access, motorized summer access, motorized winter access and they use divide and concur techniques, playing one user group against another.

Before CBM came to town they were trying to shut down mountain bike trails in Fernie. Now they're kissing the asses of the mt. bike and trails clubs to support them in their fight against British Petroleum.

Don't get hoodwinked by groups like Wildsight . Say no to Wildsight and the proposed Flathead Park

 

[polarice]

How about becoming a member of the Club. I have been saying this for years, " It's not a trail Pass, It's a back country access Pass". We need to be noticed. Is it all about grooming?? NOPE! How about summer maintinance, Keeping the trail clear year round, Keeping our Back Country access open year round!
Corbin country club ralley is this coming Sunday. I hope to C U There!

OH YA! We got a great dump of snow on Fri.

Curtis

unfortunatly there is a lot of people out there who dont buy trail passes casue they figure they dont use the trails they dont need a trail pass.... its issues like these that they look at and figure that there isnt enough use ..... everyone that rides a sled should have a trail pass and be apart of some club

the price of a trail pass isnt even as much as a tank of gas for the sled

time to buy trail passes or risk losing our priviledge of using the back country

 

[InnOnTheBorder]

Sorry, it's long, But worth the read. and theres more. Please have a look at the website!

BC Wildlife Federation Says NO to Proposed Flathead National Park and Asks, What is Really Best for BC?
Sat, 02/07/2009 - 17:28 — admin 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.

The BC Wildlife Federation strongly opposes the initiative to create a National Park in the Flathead Valley. We believe it to be completely unnecessary and will only detract from the use, enjoyment and economic benefits of this region to the British Columbian economy. Upon analysis the BCWF feels that the current land use plan, the Southern Rocky Mountains Management Plan (SRMMP) adequately addresses the concerns brought forward by the proponents of this park proposal. The SRMMP is a powerful land management tool that will ensure the Flathead Valley eco-systems will remain intact for future generations of British Columbians who will be able to recreate and work there. A panel of experts and local stakeholders meets regularly to advise and guide government on the implementation of the Southern Rocky Mountains Management Plan. A considerable amount of local effort is being exerted to ensure the Flathead Valley stays pristine, that wildlife and wilderness values are protected, and that industrial activity is sustainable and does not negatively impact these values.

The economic impacts of the proposed park to the forest industry in South Eastern BC would be devastating, resulting in a huge loss of jobs. The proposed park area represents a very significant part of the sustainable timber supply of the southern East Kootenay region.

Of note is that wise sustainable use has been conducted in the Flathead for more than 40 years. It is recognized over and over as the "Serengeti of the North", in spite of this. The mining and forestry industries have provided measurable benefits to wildlife habitats that are truly noticeable. Almost 30 years of research and monitoring has proven that it has the highest density and highest reproduction rate of inland Grizzly Bears in North America, even though they are a hunted population and live in an area that has seen significant timber harvesting.

Forest management in the Flathead is done under the FSC BC forest management standard-the highest standard of forest management in the world. The proposed park area has been designated by Tembec and their conservation partners as a "High Conservation Value Forest" with special management strategies to protect its identified values.

Additionally, over the years there have been several mining proposals including coal-bed methane extraction proposed for the Flathead Valley. Government regulations regarding coal-bed methane extraction in BC are the strictest in the world and have resulted in these proposals being withdrawn. No mining activity discussed to date has proven to be economically viable.

Forestry and mining by wise sustainable use have not been a threat to this date. If these activities ever do become a threat there is a method of due process to ensure conservation needs are fully met with an opportunity to amend the Kootenay Boundary Land Use Plan or southern Rocky Mountains Management plan if ever needed.

The Flathead is a special place, there is no disputing that fact, but is a park really the best way to protect the values that almost all of us hold dear?

Backgrounder to the Flathead Debate:
From a speech to the BC Legislative Assembly delivered by Bill Bennett, MLA East Kootenay, March 2008

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.

Legendary trout rivers such as the Wigwam and the Fording feed into the Elk, which flows into the mighty Kootenay before it arrives at the Libby, Montana dam that creates Lake Koocanusa.
The Elk Valley has supported both logging and coal mining for over a century and today thousands of British Columbia families depend on mining and forestry from the Elk Valley.

The Elk River drainage is prima facie evidence that a major industrial activity can co-exist with a clean and vibrant natural environment. Ask the thousands of people from around the world where the best cutthroat trout fishing is and they'll tell you the Elk, the Fording and the Wigwam rivers.
Ask any hunter in the Elk Valley and they will tell you about huge populations of grizzly, elk, deer and sheep on the reclaimed mine properties.

The Flathead River drainage is south of the Elk River drainage and forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park, which our US neighbours refer to as the crown jewel of the US national park system.

This is an iconic river for the folks in Montana and we in BC must respect that fact.
However, Montana politicians must also respect that the Canadian Flathead is BC's jurisdiction and that within Canada's acknowledged international obligation to steward waterways upstream from the US, we will manage the Canadian Flathead in accordance with responsible British Columbia standards and policies.

It does not advance Canadian-US relations or the debate, for Montana politicians to consistently make disrespectful public comments about British Columbia laws, regulations and processes.
An important distinction between the two valleys is the absence of permanent human habitation in the Flathead.

Another distinction: the Flathead, unlike the Elk Valley, contains only one major industrial activity - forestry...

...although like the Elk Valley, there is also mining exploration, guide-outfitting, trapping, hunting, angling, camping and recreation.

For the past 50 years, logging has been the primary resource extraction activity in the Flathead.
The Flathead actually saw BC's first pine beetle epidemic in the 1970's. The wise stewards of the day had a large portion of the Flathead Valley clear-cut to stop the epidemic in its tracks.
A few of my constituents and many Americans would like to see logging, hunting, guide-outfitting, trapping and motorized recreation removed forever from the Flathead by the creation of a federal park.

If logging was stopped in the Flathead, the major employer in the region, Tembec, would probably go out of business and for certain their Elko mill would shut down, throwing hundreds of East Kootenay families out of work.

But the majority of my constituents support the current activities in the Flathead and they do not wish to end logging, hunting, guide-outfitting, trapping and motorized recreation.
It is a logical inconsistency that the proponents of a federal park argue we must stop doing what we have been doing for the past 50 years so that we can preserve the result of the past 50 year'smanagement.

Placing a federal park over the Flathead Valley would prevent local people from enjoying this beautiful area the way they have for generations and would kill the jobs generated from the Flathead.

Certainly species like moose, elk, white-tail and mule deer and black bear all profit from the habitat created by logging. This of course is not true of all species, but overall the Canadian Flathead has flourished under the current management model.

Some people suggest that a federal park would be a great economic driver for the area.
But how can they argue there are too many people in the Flathead and then argue a federal park should be created so it will attract thousands of tourists who will crawl all over the Flathead.
And as for the huge economic park spin-off, ask people in Golden who are 10 minutes away from Yoho and they will tell you the benefits are very minimal.

And there's one more thing - although I support the tourism industry, not all rural British Columbians aspire to work in the service sector. They prefer logging, mining and construction and thank goodness for the rest of us they do, because BC's wealth is still coming from the ground, despite our post-modern penchant to pretend otherwise.

 

[ferniesnow]

looking great bcskier!!!

 

[smash]

Here we Go again, people that use the area having to fight to keep an area open against people that have never seen the area except on a map at a lobbyists $1000 a plate dinner. This system of fighting to keep areas open is rediculous. We need to pass a law that says only people that pay taxes in an area have the right to vote on its use. If enviromentalists can convince the local population that the area needs to be restricted then I won't argue with that .

I will predict the outcome of the current situation. After years of money raising and arguing local users will agree to some area closures restricting back country use to certain areas, the enviromental groups will then point to these condensed backcountry use areas as examples of enviromental damage caused by backcountry users and will argue to close more area.

I am not in government so could someone pass the LAW Idea along to someone who is, at least this would put the owness on enviromentalists to convince local population when wanting to close areas.

 

[bcskier]

This is some typical Wildsight propaganda that they've been spewing.

Hunters’ group misrepresents Flathead question
Submitted by wildsight on Wed, 11/02/2009 - 5:43pm

Park proposal for one-third of Flathead only; sanctuary necessary for wildlife survival

Wildsight is concerned about misinformation being disseminated by a B.C. hunters’ group. The group, the British Columbia Wildlife Federation, released a statement earlier this week that questioned the value of a park in the Flathead River Valley.

“Let’s be clear,” said Casey Brennan, Wildsight’s Southern Rockies program manager, “the proposal for a national park in the Flathead Valley is for the lower one-third of the valley. There have been calls for a national park in the Flathead River Valley for nearly a century. It wouldn’t interfere with current mining activities — even BP’s controversial coalbed methane tenure — but it would provide much-needed sanctuary for increasingly threatened and vulnerable wildlife populations.”

Brennan said Wildsight believes a wildlife sanctuary in the form of a national park belongs at the headwaters of the one of the most pure and pristine rivers in the world, the Flathead River.

And as for wildlife, Brennan said the 16 species of carnivores that help lend the Flathead Valley the title “Serengeti of the North” need a sanctuary.

“There is not a single sanctuary for wildlife in southeastern B.C.,” he said. “Not one. Geographically, the Flathead is the best place to have one. It’s the last, unsettled, low-elevation valley in all of Canada. It’s where animals should be able to breed and raise their young — securely.”

7 out of 10 residents support a park.
“The BCWF’s claim that there is no support for the park is plain wrong,” Brennan said. “The group claims to speak for ‘local wishes’, but its wishful thinking, given that actual poll results show clear support for a park.”

A random digit dial telephone poll conducted by McAllister Opinion Research last fall found that seventy percent of residents in the East Kootenay support the establishment of a national park in the lower one third of the Flathead River Valley.

Brennan cautioned people not to be fooled by the rhetoric of the Federation.

“The BCWF is a hunter’s group, which is just fine,” he said. “Some of its members are ideologically opposed to any wildlife sanctuaries, period, so their opposition is no surprise.

“Other members hold a more balanced view that considers the needs of sanctuaries for animals. They know that a wildlife sanctuary in the Flathead would still leave the vast majority of the East Kootenay region open to hunting.”

Why sanctuary?
The Province’s own grizzly bear study (Peak et al, 2003) said southeastern B.C. needs wildlife sanctuaries to ensure the grizzly bear’s long-term survival, but none have been created.

And the Southern Rocky Mountains Management Plan has serious shortfalls.

“Although the plan is held by some to be adequate, the truth is it fails wildlife dismally,” Brennan said.
“It’s subject to the B.C. government’s ‘two-zone’ mining policy, which puts a priority on energy and mining development.”

Brennan added: “While the BCWF might be happy for us to continue to fight their battles to keep mining out of the Flathead, we need to move toward a proactive solution to long-term conservation in this area. The current land-use policy puts wildlife at risk by giving mining and energy extraction the highest priority. It would be nice to see the BCWF take a balanced approach to land use and rather than worry about protecting their access we would invite them to work together to protect one of the last great wilderness areas in Southern British Columbia.”

The water question
Mining has had a significant impact on water quality in the southeast corner of the province.
“We can’t afford to see more cumulative impacts on the land from strip mining and poorly-monitored and enforced energy extraction regulations,” Brennan said. “We need balance on the land and the public knows we don’t have it now. That is why the majority of residents support a wild Flathead.”

- XXX -

For more information, contact:
Casey Brennan, Wildsight Southern Rockies and Flathead Program Manager
casey@wildsight.ca • 250.423.2603 – h• 250.423.0402 - c


If that's not a case of the pot calling the kettle black, Wildsight accusing user groups of spreading misinformation. They complain about the Southern Rocky Mountain Management Plan (SRMMP) having shortfalls. All user groups including Wildsight sit at that table and have input. They slam the current Liberal government over this management plan, when in fact the NDP were the ones who implemented this land use plan in the first place. The plan is a good balance for all groups involved, industry, recreational groups both motorized and non motorized, hunters groups etc. But this plan doesn't include a national park which American environmental activist groups such as the Sierra Club so desperately wants for their Y to Y pipe dream.

These guys that call themselves Wildsight are just puppets for the environmentalists south of the border. Up in Invermere on the issue of the proposed Jumbo Glacier development they say 'let the locals decide.' Great! But it's a different story when it comes to the Flathead. They come up with these bogus polls saying 7 out of 10 support a park. I don't know a single person in Fernie who was polled. They poll in places like Nelson and claim the land belongs to everyone in BC.
Let your voice be heardNO FLATHEAD PARK!

 

[ferniesnow]

This was just forwarded to me....if you are close and want more information regarding the Flathead, here you go.....

A symposium on the Crown of the Continent region will be held at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell on Friday and Saturday.
Published: Monday, February 16, 2009 10:02 PM CST
The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will feature a series of speakers who will discuss the dynamic ecological attributes of the region straddling the Continental Divide between Montana's Rogers Pass and Canada's Crowsnest Pass.

The event is sponsored by the University of Montana and FVCC.

The symposium kicks off Friday at 7 p.m. at the college's Arts and Technology Building with a lecture and slide presentation on the region's physical geography presented by UM professors Rick and Susie Graetz.


Rick Graetz, fellow professor Gerald Fetz and UM President George Dennison will unveil the Crown of the Continent Initiative, a program aimed at showcasing the region's beauty and sharing the groundbreaking research that has occurred across the Crown.

Saturday's agenda features a series of speakers from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.:

n Dan Fagre, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Glacier National Park, will present information on the park's retreating glaciers and changing landscape;

n Bill Farr, representing UM's O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, will have a presentation on the region's ties with the native Salish, Kootenai and Blackfeet tribes;

n Steve Thompson of the National Parks Conservation Association will discuss a recent community-based mapping project on the region that was developed with the National Geographic Society;

n Marilyn Blair, a scientist with the Geological Survey in Glacier Park, will discuss the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem Education Consortium;

n Jack Stanford, director of UM's Yellow Bay Biological Station on Flathead Lake, will talk about the lake, rivers and flood plains in the Flathead Basin;

n Len Broberg, chairman of UM's Department of Environmental Studies, will discuss Canadian-American transboundary ecosystem issues.

For more information, call the FVCC Continuing Education Center at 756-3832.