Mining banned north of Glacier Park

The lieutenant governor of British Columbia announced Tuesday that all types of mining and oil and gas development “will not be permitted” in the province’s portion of the Flathead Valley.

It was news that was well received in Montana.

“It’s pretty significant,” said Dave Hadden of the conservation group Headwaters Montana.

The announcement came during the “Throne Speech,” an annual address that identifies the provincial priorities for the coming year.

“A new partnership with Montana will sustain the environmental values in the Flathead River Basin in a manner consistent with current forestry, recreation, guide outfitting and trapping uses,” British Columbia Lt. Gov. Steven Point said.

“Mining, oil and gas development and coalbed gas extraction will not be permitted in British Columbia’s Flathead Valley.”

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Tuesday he will sign a comprehensive “memorandum of understanding” with British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell next week in Vancouver, B.C. That document will halt ongoing exploration work and prohibit future development.

Schweitzer said the agreement was the result of five years of mostly quiet and often-delicate negotiations aimed at limiting development in the river drainage just north of Glacier National Park.

“We’ve agreed there will be no gold mining, no coal-bed methane and no coal mining in the Flathead on the Canadian side,” Schweitzer said.

He credited the breakthrough to “a bold move by Premier Campbell.”

Since the 1980s, Montana has resisted a series of proposals for mining and oil and gas development in the Canadian Flathead, largely because the basin’s waters flow south into the North Fork Flathead drainage, along the west boundary of Glacier Park and into Flathead Lake.

For more on this story, read Wednesday's Daily Inter Lake.