Protecting the North Fork

As residents of the Flathead Valley, we inhabit a unique and special landscape. Our rivers, streams and lakes are treasures we share for recreating, fishing, boating, and swimming.

Additionally, our water resources are major drivers of our economy — millions of people come to the Flathead every year, in large part to enjoy access to clean, cold water. In fact, a recent study placed the economic value of Flathead Lake at approximately $10 billion dollars.

Unfortunately, the Flathead River is not ours alone. We share this precious resource with our neighbors to the north in British Columbia. The headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead River can be found approximately 30 miles north of the border — in one of the most remote and pristine valleys in all of North America.

In recent years, the Canadian Flathead has been continuously threatened due to a variety of energy-extraction proposals. In just three short years, we have seen three different proposals to develop large-scale open-pit coal mines and two attempts to lease a significant portion of the upper drainage for coal-bed methane extraction.

To date, the efforts to bring such energy-extraction proposals to fruition have failed. For example, in 2004, the British Columbia provincial government failed to receive any bids to extract coal-bed methane from the Flathead due to local opposition on both sides of the border to industrialization of the Canadian Flathead. However, last month, the government of British Columbia announced plans to give British Petroleum, Inc. exclusive rights to appraise the potential for coal-bed methane in the Canadian Flathead.

BP's latest proposal for the extraction of coal-bed methane at the headwaters of Glacier National Park is cause for concern for every Montanan who enjoys the clean, cold waters of the Flathead River and Flathead Lake.

If you have any doubts regarding the future impacts of large-scale coal-bed methane operations to the Flathead watershed, I urge you visit the Wyoming portion of the Powder River Basin, where a dense network of roads scar the landscape, thousands of containment ponds hold millions of gallons of salt water, and noisy compressors assault one's senses.

This September, the United States and Canada will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. The pristine Flathead River and Peace Park are special places that we share as two great countries united by peace and goodwill. It is critical that this unique ecosystem, designated as both a World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve, be protected both now and for future generations.

It is time for the United States and Canada to come together as friends, neighbors and allies to develop a win-win solution that protects the existing values of the Flathead once and for all.

Jan Metzmaker is a resident of Whitefish and a citizen member of the Flathead Basin Commission, an organization established by the Montana Legislature to monitor and protect the water quality of the Flathead River drainage system.