U.N. officials to visit Glacier Park next week

Two scientists from the United Nations

will visit Glacier National Park and Canada the week of Sept. 21 to

see for themselves the potential impacts of mining in the Canadian

Flathead.

The delegates are expected to tour the area the first three days

with scientists from Glacier National Park and the Flathead Lake

Biological Station. Biological Station scientists have been

monitoring water quality in the basin.

The rest of the week the scientists are expected to meet with

Canadian officials.

The trip was brought about by a petition earlier this year to have

Glacier listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger.

The proposed designation was spurred by U.S. and Canadian

environmental groups who fear that proposed mining in the Canadian

Flathead will ruin the water quality of the river, which becomes

the North Fork of the Flathead in the United States and makes up

the western boundary of Glacier Park.

But rather than list Glacier as in danger, U.N. officials decided

to make a trip to the region and see the area - and the threats -

for themselves.

For more of this story, see the print version of Monday's Inter

Lake.