The Conservation Alliance

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Sierra Club BC

Website
http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca
Contact Name
Sarah Cox
Contact Email
sarah@antispamsierraclub.bc.ca
Location
Victoria, BC
Past Grants
2010 · $35,000
2009 · $35,000
Grand Total
$70,000

Sierra Club BC is a non-profit environmental organization whose mission is to protect and conserve British Columbia’s wilderness, species and ecosystems, within the urgent context of global warming impacts. We advocate the responsible use of B.C.’s natural resources while promoting a modern, equitable economy that sustains our planet in every way.

One of our greatest strengths, rooted in our more than 40 year history, is our ability to engage and mobilize people in constructive action to protect ecosystems and wild spaces. At the heart of our organization are more than 10,000 supporters from diverse communities across the province.

Sierra Club BC works with different levels of government and First Nations to provide science-based conservation viewpoints and advice on policy decisions that affect a range of environmental issues

Conservation Alliance helps fund our Flathead River Valley campaign, which seeks permanent protection for this globally-significant wilderness in the southeast corner of B.C. The Flathead adjoins Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, a World Heritage Site and two UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.

In February 2010, following a prolonged campaign by Sierra Club BC, Wildsight and other groups, the B.C. government announced a ban on mining and oil and gas development in the Flathead. While we welcome the ban as an important first step, it has not been legislated and could be overturned by a future provincial government. In the absence of permanent protection, the Flathead, compared to Africa's Serengeti for its richness of species, remains under threat from logging, grizzly trophy hunting, new road access and quarrying.  

We aim to secure permanent protection by establishing a National Park in the south eastern one-third of the Flathead River Valley, thus filling in the long-recognized missing piece of the Waterton-Glacier World Heritage Site. We also aim to establish a Wildlife Management Area in the rest of the valley and adjoining habitat in order to protect a vital wildlife corridor stretching from Glacier to Canada's Rocky Mountain parks.

The Flathead has the highest density of grizzly bears in the interior of North America, and the highest density and diversity of carnivores on the continent. Water in the Flathead River is so pure that scientists use it as a benchmark by which to measure water quality in rivers around the world.

The mining ban followed a petition by Sierra Club BC and 10 other US and Canadian conservation groups, which asked the World Heritage Committee to declare Waterton-Glacier a World Heritage Site in Danger due to a proposed Flathead mountain-top removal coal mine and other mining proposals. In June 2009 the committee voted unanimously to send a delegation to investigate. Click here to read the full mission report. Learn more at www.sierraclub.bc.ca.

We share our Conservation Alliance funds with two other organizations involved in the Flathead campaign: Wildsight and Headwaters Montana.

Project Update

It may be a dreary summer here in B.C., but that hasn’t dampened the spirits of our two new Flathead Wild team members. Working on Flathead River Valley outreach and education, both Leila Darwish and Ivy Smith have been out and about all summer, tabling at events and speaking to the public about the need for permanent protection of this important valley.

Leila is the Outreach Coordinator at Sierra Club BC and has been travelling all over B.C. to speak to British Columbians about the Flathead, while Flathead Campaign Associate Ivy has been hard at work on the Alberta side, working out of the Yellowstone to Yukon office in Canmore.

Together, the two have gathered more than a thousand signatures on our official Flathead petition and raised the profile of the Flathead River Valley.

B.C.’s Flathead River Valley is home to an amazing variety of plants and animals as well as some of the purest water on the planet. It’s also a vital link in a globally-significant wildlife corridor and the missing piece of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

The Flathead is a nursery for wildlife, including rare and at-risk species, that disperse to the adjacent Waterton-Glacier peace park. Despite a ban on mining and oil and gas development announced by the B.C. government in February 2010, the Flathead is still threatened by logging, grizzly trophy hunting, increased road access, and quarrying.

Because of the Flathead River Valley’s proximity to Waterton-Glacier, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, what happens in the valley doesn’t stay in the valley – it directly affects Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta and Glacier National Park in Montana. In order to permanently protect the Flathead, and by extension, Waterton-Glacier, we need a National Park in the south-eastern one-third of the Flathead and a Wildlife Management Area in the rest of the valley and adjoining habitat.

The federal government has included the Flathead in its national parks action plan aimed at completing the Canadian parks system. The B.C. government now needs to agree to permanent protection so that the first step – a parks feasibility study – can take place. With strong existing support for a park among British Columbians, the Flathead Wild campaign is also reaching out to our neighbours in Alberta so that we can work together to complete the missing piece of Waterton-Glacier.

Both Ivy and Leila have received a good response to their work from Canadians who support permanent protection for the Flathead River Valley. You can help keep the pressure on the B.C. and federal governments by downloading the Flathead petition, getting it signed and then sending it back to the Flathead Wild team to add it to our growing stack of signed petitions. You can also email Leila or Ivy to find out about where they will be next on their tabling tours of B.C. and Alberta – they’d love to meet you!