Money secured to protect B.C. wilderness area by Colette Derworiz, September 14, 2012, Calgary Herald
CALGARY — More than $10 million has been raised to help keep mining and oil and gas exploration out of the Flathead River Valley, a B.C. wilderness area near Waterton Lakes National Park. The Nature Conservancy of Canada and the U.S. based Nature Conservancy have raised the money to protect the area. It will allow the B.C. government to implement the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, which was passed last year. The legislation permanently prohibits coal mining and oil and gas exploration on nearly 160,000 hectares of land in southeast B.C. Funding came from the federal government’s Natural Areas Conservation Program; Warburg Pincus, an international private equity firm; and, other private donors. The Flathead River Valley has been called the “Serengeti of the North” because it’s home to bighorn sheep, moose, wolverines, elk and grizzly bears.
[Refer also to: B.C. gets $10 million windfall to protect Flathead River Valley
New York State to Buy 69,000 Acres in Adirondacks Cuomo’s Adirondack fracking policy Reader questions Hutchinson drilling
Scientists granted research window for Flathead Coalbed Methane mining
ENVIRONMENTAL DISPUTE: FLATHEAD RIVER, U.S. senators seek endangered listing for Waterton ]