Photo by H. Locke/iCLP

Mount Heft lookout in a photo that is part of the Flathead RAVE exhibition, currently on display in Red Tree Lodge, Fernie.

A moratorium on mining is needed to protect the Flathead Valley and the neighbouring Waterton-Glacier World Heritage Site, UNESCO delegates who visited the area have reportedly concluded.

The report by UNESCO delegates Paul Dingwall and Kishore Rao will not be published in full until July’s world heritage committee meeting, but a senior United States Park Services official has outlined its findings following enquiries from British Columbia media.

Speaking to The Free Press this week, head of the international affairs office for the U.S. National Park Service, Stephen Morris, said he chose to speak publicly to the Vancouver Sun about the United States view on the report because a joint Canadian/United States response to the report, which is currently being prepared, is likely to be a public document.

He added: “The UNESCO report isn’t a public document but I feel I am able to paraphrase what is in the report in order to say the United States supports its positions.”

Morris said that the report recommends a mining moratorium in Flathead as a way to protect the neighbouring Waterton-Glacier park.

He added: “It says if the mining proposals reach the application review stage, that would be a basis of putting the national parks on the Heritage Sites in danger list.

“It also says that if the mining proposals become applications they should be referred to the Canada and U.S. International Joint Commission.”

The commission is a body that works to resolve issues concerned cross-border waters.

The Cabin Creek coal strip mine proposal in the Flathead was turned down in 1988 after the International Joint Commission concluded that pollution caused by the mine would constitute a breach of the Canada and U.S. Boundary Waters Treaty.

Morris added: “We are looking to cooperate with our Canadian counterparts. I think Canada has played a leadership role in World Heritage convention for many years – they are recognized as one of the countries that has always supported the convention – we don’t think there would be any reason why they wouldn’t continue to play that role.”

Larry Ostola of Parks Canada told The Free Press this week that, although he understood details of the report had been made public, he was not willing to speak about them, or comment on the U.S. Park Service’s decision to make them public.

He added: “What I am willing to say is that we were pleased that the report has confirmed what Canada has been saying for some time on this issue, that in terms of the actual situation this is not a world heritage site in danger.

“We are somewhat disappointed that the report does not take a comprehensive view of the universal factors that may affect the world heritage site over a big area – it tends to focus on the Flathead.”

The World Heritage Committee will review the delegates’ report in July, along with a joint report submitted by the United States and Canada on the status of the site.

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