Funding reached to protect North Fork

Bob Patterson, of Oregon, was slinging a line in the North Fork of the Flathead River last week, catching small cutthroat in a run at Glacier Rim.

He’d been on a big looping tour of famous waters in Canada and the U.S., but this was the first stop where he was getting into fish, even if they were small ones.

Patterson said he gave money to the Nature Conservancy’s campaign to compensate mining interests in the headwaters of the river and forever end the threat of mining and energy exploration in the Canadian Flathead. When asked why he did it, he shrugged.

“I’m always for the fish,” he said.

The Conservancy’s campaign came to a close last week as it announced $10 million had been raised through the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Nature Conservancy in the U.S. The funding will be used by the British Columbian government to implement the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, which was passed last year.

The legislation permanently prohibits coal mining as well as exploration and development of oil, gas and mineral resources on nearly 400,000 acres of land in southeast British Columbia that encompass the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead.

“This magnificent river and the wildlife that depend on it don’t recognize borders on maps, so our conservation efforts shouldn’t be constrained by such boundaries either,” said Kat Imhoff, director of the Nature Conservancy of Montana. “This is the perfect moment to recognize an extraordinary bi-national partnership that we hope will continue beyond the North Fork.”

The North Fork marks the western boundary of Glacier National Park. The money will reimburse companies that already had started energy development or held leases in the region prior to the ban.

The legislation originated from a memorandum of understanding signed in 2010 by former British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Both the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Nature Conservancy in the U.S. also will assist the British Columbia government in maintaining and enhancing high conservation standards in the natural area in order to protect the rich diversity of plant and animal life.

The Canadian government contributed $5.4 million to the project. Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm, contributed $2.5 million to the project — the largest private contribution. The effort also saw many smaller, private donations.

“As investors in Canada for two decades, with seven Canadian energy companies in our current portfolio, Warburg Pincus is especially proud to play a role in the preservation of the Canadian wilderness,” Warburg Pincus co-president Charles R. Kaye said. “Partnerships among the public, private and nonprofit sectors are essential to protecting our natural habitats and the environment, and fulfilling our responsibility as good corporate citizens.”

Not all the companies that were eyeing the Flathead for energy development are happy with the deal.

Cline Mining Co., which had plans for an open-pit mine in the headwaters of the river, is suing the province for $500 million, claiming that’s what it lost from the legislation. Cline’s project, however, never got past the preliminary analysis phase before the legislation was passed.