The Central Selkirk Mountains in southeastern British Columbia are under threat.
This is some of the wildest land left in the Kootenays — with rare old growth forest stands and highly endangered mountain caribou.
A proposal for the Zincton All-Season Resort places the resort in the middle of a critical wildlife corridor connecting Goat Range Provincial Park in the north to Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park in the south. This is prime grizzly bear and wolverine habitat, and also home to mountain goats and western toads.
The Highway 31A corridor that runs between New Denver and Kaslo, B.C. is also an important area for traditional use by Indigenous people, who call it piq kiʔláwnaʔ after the rare white grizzly found here. It's also popular for hunting, hiking and backcountry skiing among other recreation activities. The Zincton development restricts local use of a cherished area they have been using for decades.
There are already several commercial and industrial tenures in the area and the cumulative effects of these and further developments have not been assessed, including environmental and socio-economic impacts on nearby communities.
We need a plan. You can help.
Join The Wild Connection, Y2Y, and partners by advocating for a pause on any new, or expansion of existing, commercial recreational tenures until a larger land use planning process is complete for this region.
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PRESS PAUSE, LET'S PLAN PETITION TEXT
ATTN: Hon. Nathan Cullen (Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship);
Hon. Lana Popham (Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport)
We, the undersigned, request that the Province of BC place a moratorium on any new, or expansion of existing, commercial recreation tenures in the New Denver-Kaslo (Highway 31A) corridor until there is an updated land use plan for the area.
As per your commitment to modernizing land use planning in B.C., we ask that you initiate such a process here, where the need is urgent. With commercial developments on the rise, people have concerns about the health of the ecosystems and the potential impacts on nearby small rural villages. The cumulative impacts of existing and proposed commercial and industrial tenures must be assessed before decisions are made. Impacts to be considered include effects on wildlife habitat and connectivity, resilience to climate change, community and socio-economic concerns, and Indigenous rights and interests.
We ask you to pause new tenure
decisions, including the Zincton All-Season Resort proposal, so people in the region can plan for a healthy,
vibrant future where the needs of wildlife and human communities are considered
for the longer term.