BILLINGS, Montana (AP) — Leaders of Montana and British Columbia said Tuesday they will ban drilling and mining in a remote valley along the US-Canada border that companies have tried to develop for more than a quarter century.
Proposals for gas drilling, gold exploration and coal mining are all pending in the million-acre (400,000-hectare) Flathead Valley, located just upstream from Glacier National Park.
An agreement between Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell would put a halt to exploration work and prohibit future development. It will be signed next week in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Schweitzer says companies with money already invested in leases or exploration would be compensated through the Canadian and U.S. federal governments. That includes companies with drilling rights on at least 250,000 acres (100,000 hectares) on the Montana side.
International pressure has been increasing to ban drilling and mining in the scenic valley that has been relatively untouched by development, particularly as the world turns its attention to the Canadian province that will host the upcoming Winter Olympics.
In January, a team of U.N. scientists recommended a moratorium on mining in the valley.
Nearby Glacier park in Montana and Waterton International Park in Canada were designated as a World Heritage site in 1995 because of their outstanding scenery and abundant wildlife.
A 2003 British Columbia land-use plan for the area set mining as a high priority and said other uses such as wildlife habitat and recreation "will not preclude ... approval of mining activities."
In December, Max Resource Corp. said it had extracted samples of high-grade gold from a ridge about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Glacier.
In 1985, a U.S.-Canada joint commission rejected an open pit coal mine in the same area, known as Cabin Creek, because of potential environmental damages.
