Mining Association CEO Misleadingly uses Wilderness Committee Quote to Oppose New National Park in BC’s Flathead River Valley

The Wilderness Committee condemns the misleading use of a quote from its former Victoria campaign director, Ken Wu, by a mining association opposing permanent protection for B.C.’s globally significant Flathead River Valley.

Gavin C. Dirom, President & CEO of the Association for Mineral Exploration BC, in a statement on the association’s website, quotes Wu about a “forestry related matter”—-specifically, the BC government’s proposed “Commercial Forest Reserves” that would obstruct the creation of new protected areas. Wu is quoted saying that the BC government should not “…put in place a major land-use change without a land-use planning process,” in support of the mining association’s opposition to proposals for a new National Park in the southeastern one-third of the Flathead River Valley, adjoining Waterton Lakes National Park.

“It’s ironic, and frankly, very misleading that the mining association’s president chose to use a quote of mine to oppose an important National Park proposal for one-third of B.C.’s Flathead River Valley,” stated Ken Wu, who finished his last day at the WCWC on Monday. “A national park feasibility study undertaken to examine the proposed creation or expansion of a national park IS a major land-use planning process. Within the region of interest, a subset of lands would be reviewed for possible permanent protection through consultation with diverse stakeholders in the region.”

“The Wilderness Committee fully supports a campaign—led by Sierra Club BC, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society BC and the East Kootenay conservation group Wildsight—to establish a new National Park in the southeastern one-third of the Flathead River Valley and a Wildlife Management Area in the rest of the valley and adjoining habitat,” stated Tara Sawatsky, Forest and Marine Campaigner with the Wilderness Committee’s Victoria office.

The Wilderness Committee also supports the expansion of both federal and provincial protected areas in B.C., where land-use plans are inadequate to conserve the region’s biodiversity. It supports the implementation of new land-use plans in such regions that incorporate new scientific insights from conservation biology and ecosystem-based planning to better protect the environment.

The Flathead Valley, adjacent to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, is under threat from mining and energy proposals, including one proposal for a coal strip mine that would see the removal of 40 million tonnes of coal from a Flathead mountain.