Big Oil threatens Canadian wildlife paradise

This video from Canada is called Banff National Park.

From British daily The Guardian:

Rockies wilderness at risk from latest dash for gas

Between two national parks lies a corridor rich in wildlife – but also in fossil fuels. Will protection follow now that the gas extraction drillers want to move in?

* Jim Giles

It has been called one of North America’s wildest places. Just north of the US-Canada border, the wooded slopes of the Canadian Rockies channel unpolluted water into a valley that remains free of human development. Grizzly bears, cougars and wolverines prowl the banks of the Flathead river. Outside of a national park, there is probably no wilderness like it on the continent.

But outside of a national park could mean outside of legal protection. Somewhere in the workings of the British Columbia government, an application from global energy company BP is working its way around civil servants’ desks. In it, the firm outlines a proposal that has horrified local environmentalists: the installation of up to 1,500 gas wells covering an area of 500 sq km (310 sq miles) amid the lush 1,580 sq km wilderness of the Flathead. Some time during the next six months, officials may give approval to the project.

“There have to be some places on the planet where you don’t go for energy production,” says Jack Stanford, a biologist at the nearby University of Montana. “This is one of them.”

Stanford’s fascination with the region has spanned 40 years of his scientific career. When he describes the valley, it’s easy to see why. To the north lie the mountainous Banff and Jasper national parks. The 4,500 sq km Waterton Glacier International Peace Park straddles the border just south of the river. All these great wildernesses have been declared world heritage sites by Unesco.

Isolated populations

The Flathead valley connects the protected areas, allowing hundreds of bears and thousands of moose to roam between the parks. Sixteen species of carnivore live in the region, a higher density than anywhere in North America. Without a corridor, animals in the parks would become more isolated, inbred and vulnerable to disease. “The grizzlies would gradually decline and disappear,” warns Stanford.

Finding Bears in Banff National Park: here.

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