Sacred Headwaters: Paradise in Peril
Sacred Headwaters in focus ⬿

Sacred Headwaters: Paradise in Peril

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October 1, 2012
 

In a remote corner of northern British Columbia lies the Sacred Headwaters, a vast alpine basin that is the shared birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers.

Sometimes referred to as “the Serengeti of the North”, the Sacred Headwaters are home to rich populations of wild salmon, grizzly bears, mountain sheep, wolves and caribou. The Tahltan First Nations people have hunted and trapped in the Sacred Headwaters for millenia.

And yet, it is a paradise in peril. Shell desperately wants to frack for coalbed methane gas in the region.

Things were looking up in 2008, when the B.C. government placed a moratorium on Shell’s fracking plans. However, as many pointed out the time, the hard-fought victory would not last forever.

Indeed. The moratorium expires just ten weeks from now, on December 18, 2012. We have until then to defend the Sacred Headwaters from a company that would permanently disfigure the region with more than 4,000 wells and 3,000 kilometers of road; and contaminate it with Coalbed methane wastewater which is usually high in salts and often contains heavy metals like cadmium and mercury.

What You Can Do

1. As a starting point, you can sign an online petition urging Premier Christy Clark to protect the Sacred Headwaters

or

Tell Christy Yourself. You can send her a brief note on Twitter twitter.com/christyclarkbc (use hashtag #sacredheadwaters), or phone her at (250) 387-1715

We're fighting for our lives

Indigenous Peoples are putting their bodies on the line and it's our responsibility to make sure you know why. That takes time, expertise and resources - and we're up against a constant tide of misinformation and distorted coverage. By supporting IC you're empowering the kind of journalism we need, at the moment we need it most.

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