The Klappan Coalbed Methane Project is a gas project owned by Shell Canada (a subsidiary company of Royal Dutch Shell) that looks to develop the coalbed methane from an area in northern British Columbia, near the source of three rivers: the Skeena River, Nass River, and Stikine River, and also the namesake Klappan River. The area is known in environmental politics and native lore as the Sacred Headwaters or Kablona. The project is the source of controversy and is opposed by First Nations groups and non-governmental organizations. If developed, the project will include a network of gas wells connected by roads and pipelines, as well as a pipeline to deliver the gas to market.
The British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources estimates that the Klappan coal deposit could contain as much as 8.1 trillion cubic feet (230 km3) of coalbed methane gas. [1]
In 2004, the government of British Columbia granted Shell Canada a 400,000 hectare (4,000 km2) tenure of land for coalbed methane development. In June 2004, Shell signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tahltan Central Council, the Chief of the Tahltan Band and the Chief of the Iskut First Nation, for coalbed methane development of the Klappan Coalbed Methane Project. In the winter of 2004, Shell drilleds three exploration wells, and detected the presence of coalbed methane gas. The company also conducted a seismic survey over an 84 kilometres (52 mi) stretch of existing railway bed.
Shell canceled its 2006 drilling program in response to opposition from First Nations groups. In April 2007, Royal Dutch Shell acquired Shell Canada making it a wholly owned subsidiary. Tahltan elders from Iskut and Telegraph Creek blockaded Shell's road access to the area. Shell would unsuccessfully seek a court injunction that would allow them to have the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrest the blockaders. Shell's crews manage to access the area and begin road repairs.
On July 27, 2007, a group of 13 environmental non-governmental organizations wrote a letter to Shell's executives in the Hague, urging them to suspend drilling plans in the Sacred Headwaters. Signatories to the letter include Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth International, ForestEthics, Sierra Club, and the David Suzuki Foundation. On August 31, 2007, Rallies were held across British Columbia, including one outside the Vancouver Courthouse where Tahltan blockaders and Shell were scheduled to appear at an injunction hearing with David Suzuki speaking at the rally. In September, Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace and other Non-governmental organizations ran advertisements in the Financial Times with the headline "This Time It's Canada" and a photo of the Tahltan road blockade.
The Chiefs of the Gitxsan Nation, located downstream in the Skeena watershed, called for the immediate suspension of coalbed methane exploration in the Sacred Headwaters. In April, the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC included the Sacred Headwaters in its annual listing of British Columbia's most threatened rivers. In May 2008, the Sacred Headwaters Summit attendees pledge to stand together to stop Shell's project [2] and concerned citizens from British Columbia traveled to Shell's Annual General Meeting in the Hague to protest the company's activities in the Sacred Headwaters. [3] A resolution opposing Shell's drilling plans was officially endorsed by the Kitimat-Stikine Regional District, Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District, United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union, the village of Hazelton, British Columbia, the Town of Smithers and more than half a dozen First Nations band councils.[ citation needed ] A four-year exploration moratorium was imposed by the province in 2008, to be reviewed in 2012. [4]
On December 13th, the government of British Columbia ended the prospect of natural gas development in the region as part of a tripartite agreement with the Tahltan and Shell. It acknowledged that the Klappan has been identified by the Tahltan as having significant cultural, spiritual and social values, and also includes the vital salmon-bearing Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers.
Shell Canada president Lorraine Mitchelmore said the company would be focusing its B.C. development strategy in the province's northeast. [5]
The Stikine River is a major river in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States. It drains a large, remote upland area known as the Stikine Country east of the Coast Mountains. Flowing west and south for 610 kilometres (379 mi), it empties into various straits of the Inside Passage near Wrangell, Alaska. About 90 percent of the river's length and 95 percent of its drainage basin are in Canada. Considered one of the last truly wild large rivers in BC, the Stikine flows through a variety of landscapes including boreal forest, steep canyons and wide glacial valleys.
The Tahltan or Nahani are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, and Iskut. The Tahltan constitute the fourth division of the Nahane.
The Boundary Ranges, also known in the singular and as the Alaska Boundary Range, are the largest and most northerly subrange of the Coast Mountains. They begin at the Nass River, near the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle in the Canadian province of British Columbia and run to the Kelsall River, near the Chilkoot Pass, beyond which are the Alsek Ranges of the Saint Elias Mountains, and northwards into the Yukon Territory flanking the west side of the Yukon River drainage as far as Champagne Pass, north of which being the Yukon Ranges. To their east are the Skeena Mountains and Stikine Plateau of the Interior Mountains complex that lies northwest of the Interior Plateau; the immediately adjoining subregion of the Stikine Plateau is the Tahltan Highland. To their northeast is the Tagish Highland, which is a subregion of the Yukon Plateau. Both highlands are considered in some descriptions as included in the Coast Mountains. The Alexander Archipelago lies offshore and is entirely within Alaska.
Iskut is a small, mostly Indigenous community in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia. It is located on Highway 37, at the north end of Eddontenajon Lake just south of Dease Lake and the crossing of the Stikine River.
Spatsizi Headwaters Provincial Park is a provincial park in the Stikine Region of British Columbia, Canada. It was established on January 25, 2001 to protect the headwaters of the Spatsizi River while providing recreational facilities for visitors.
The Skeena Mountains, also known as the Skeenas, are a subrange of the Interior Mountains of northern British Columbia, Canada, essentially flanking the upper basin of the Skeena River. They lie just inland from the southern end of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains, and also of the northern end of the Kitimat Ranges. Their southern limit is described by the Bulkley River and the upper northwestern reaches of Babine and Takla Lakes, and on their northeast by the upper reaches of the Omineca River.
The Stikine Country, also referred to as the Stikine District or simply "the Stikine", is one of the historical geographic regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, located inland from the central Alaska Panhandle and comprising the basin of the Stikine River and its tributaries. The term Stikine–Iskut is also fairly common to describe the area, and references the Iskut River, the Stikine's largest tributary and describable as its south fork.
The Sacred Headwaters is a large subalpine drainage basin centred around Klappan Mountain of the Klappan Range in northern British Columbia. It is the source of three wild salmon rivers: the Skeena River, Nass River, and Stikine River. It is also referred to as the Klappan Valley, although the Klappan—a tributary of the Stikine River—is only one of the area's watersheds. Local Tahltan people call the area Klabona, which is loosely translated as "headwaters".
The Stikine Plateau is a plateau in northern British Columbia, Canada. It lies between the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains on the west and southwest and the Cassiar Mountains along its northeast, and between the Skeena Mountains on its south and southeast and the Jennings and Nakina Rivers on the north.
The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition is a non-governmental organization based in British Columbia which opposes Royal Dutch Shell's Klappan Coalbed Methane Project in a region dubbed the Sacred Headwaters by the Tahltan people, which is located in a mountainous area where the Klappan, Stikine, Skeena and Nass Rivers all have their origin. It was founded in 2004 by a diverse group of people living and working in the Skeena River watershed.
The Iskut First Nation is a band government of the Tahltan people. Their main reserve is Iskut IR No.6, located at Iskut, British Columbia; Iskut is in the same vicinity, while the band's third reserve, Stikine River IR No. 7 is located one mile west of, and on the opposite side of the Stikine River from, the community of Telegraph Creek. The Iskut First Nation is one of two member bands of the Tahltan Nation, the other member band being the Tahltan First Nation, also known as the Tahltan Indian Band.
The Tàłtàn Nation is a tribal council-type organization combining the governments of two band governments of the Tahltan people in the Stikine Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The two member governments are the Iskut First Nation and the Tahltan First Nation, which is also known as the Tahltan Indian Band. The Tahltan Nation is governed by the Tahltan Central Council, which is composed of representatives of 10 families from each band and has its offices at Dease Lake and Telegraph Creek.
The Iskut River, located in the northwest part of the province of British Columbia is the largest tributary of the Stikine River, entering it about 11 km (6.8 mi) above its entry into Alaska.
The Klappan Range is a small subrange of the Skeena Mountains of the Interior Mountains, located between Klappan River and Iskut River in northern British Columbia, Canada.
The Klastline Plateau is a plateau in the Stikine Region of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. A subplateau of the Stikine Plateau, it is located between the Stikine River (N), the upper Iskut River (S), Mess Creek (W) and the Klappan River (E). The Skeena Mountains are to the south, the Tahltan Highland to the west, the Spatsizi Plateau to the east, and the Tanzilla Plateau to the north, on the other side of the Stikine. The Spatsizi and Tanzilla Plateaus, and the Tahltan Highland, are also part of the Stikine Plateau.
Dogwood BC is a Canadian non-profit public interest group based in Victoria, British Columbia. The organization works to increase the power of British Columbians over government decision-making. They were instrumental in the fight against Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline, introducing a tanker moratorium on B.C.'s north coast and the province's campaign finance reform. The organization currently works to stop Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain tanker and pipeline expansion in B.C., ban U.S. thermal coal exports through B.C. ports and restore accountability and transparency to the province's democracy by calling for a Corruption Inquiry.
The Klappan River is a major tributary of the Stikine River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It flows north from an area known as the Sacred Headwaters, which is the source not only of this river but also of the Nass, Skeena, Spatsizi and Stikine Rivers. The headwaters region is the site of a controversial coal-bed methane project.
Stand.earth is a grassroots environmental organization founded in 2000. The organization protects endangered forests by transforming corporate policy and governmental laws in the United States and Canada. Stand.earth uses public education, advocacy, protest, negotiation and non-violent direct action tactics to achieve its goals.
Annita McPhee is the former three-term president of the Tahltan Nation in British Columbia, Canada. She was also named National Native Role Model by Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson in 2000 and won the Aboriginal Woman of Distinction Award.
The Bell-Irving River is a tributary of the Nass River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It originates in the Sacred Headwaters region, and flows about 165 km (103 mi) south to the Nass River. It course lies between the Oweegee Range of the Skeena Mountains to the east and the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains to the west.