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February 27 2008 » News Clippings » Houston Today

Headwaters should be off limits

Northwest region conservation group Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition says the B.C. government should make the Sacred Headwaters of the Skeena River off limits to coalbed methane development.
The B.C. government should make northern B.C.’s Sacred Headwaters off limits to coalbed methane, just as it has done for the Flathead Valley, says a northwest conservation group.

Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition and an alliance of regional, national and international groups have been working to stop Royal Dutch Shell from proceeding with coalbed methane development in the so-called Sacred Headwaters, the shared birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers 300 kilometers north of Smithers.

“We’re talking about a very risky resource development right at the source of three of Canada’s most important wild salmon rivers,” said Shannon McPhail, Executive Director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition.

“If there are ecologically important areas that should be off limits to coalbed methane, this is one of them.”

A 2005 report by IBM Business Consulting estimates Skeena wild salmon contribute $110 million annually to the regional economy.

The Stikine and Nass also support important salmon fisheries.

The Sacred Headwaters is home to robust populations of caribou, grizzly bears, stone sheep and wolves.

“The economy, identity, and lifestyle of the entire Northwest is tied to the health of these three watersheds,” said McPhail.

“Coalbed methane threatens all of this, while giving virtually nothing back to the people who live here.”

Shell drilled three exploration wells at the headwaters of the Stikine River in 2004.

It has permits to drill an additional 14 wells, 11 of which are at the headwaters of the Skeena River.

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