'Stop the rape of this land' was the message at Sunday's Keep Jumbo Wild rally
By Bruce Fuhr
The provincial government fired the latest salvo over the Purcell Mountains in the Keep Jumbo Wild fight when politicians last week gave the go ahead to Glacier Resorts Ltd to build North America’s only year-round glacier based resort.
Sunday evening in front of Nelson City Hall, 200 supporters of Keep Jumbo Wild came together to lay the foundation on what promises to be a battle for the ages.
“It’s time to stop the rape of this land,” Marilyn James of the Sinixt Nation told protestors in between chants of “Keep Jumbo Wild.”
James was just one of supporters wondering how the Liberal government could make a decision that no doubts puts in jeopardy one of the last remaining picturesque part of B.C.
“The Purcell Mountains are the largest untouched wilderness in southern B.C. and that (decision) affects everybody,” said K. Linda Kivi, a.k.a. Jumbo Jester, and long time Jumbo activist for the West Kootenay Coalition for Jumbo Wild.
“(Jumbo) is source population of grizzlies . . . they’re trying to repopulate grizzly populations in the U.S. based out of the Purcell population.
“It’s got vital ecological systems,” added Kivi, emcee of the evening that included satirical songs by Earl Hamilton and the Raging Grannies.
“It’s the birthplace of the Kootenay River and Columbia River the two biggest rivers in the region. So it’s not an isolated spot. So to build a resort in Jumbo is to break the spine of the Purcells. It’s a living thing.”
The recent decision, that has taken more than 20 years to make, gives Glacier Resorts Ltd the go ahead to build North America’s only year-round glacier based resort.
The resort will be in the Purcell Mountains, 57 kilometers west of Invermere, on the site of an old sawmill. The completed ski resort will feature up to 23 lifts, a 3,000 metre-high gondola and spectacular world-class views.
James said during her speech if the resort is built, it would cripple the region for many years to come.
“Once we realize that we’re at the bottom we’ll begin to understand that everything we do at the tops of the mountains, that affects the grizzly bears, that affects the wolverines, that affects all of the things out there, if we do not respect them we will end up paying the ultimate price,” James told the crowd.
“We’ll begin to understand you can’t drink a dollar bill.
You cannot eat that money.”
“We have got to protect the sustainability of this landscape if we are to survive as human beings . . ..”
Kim Kratky Conservation Chair of the Kootenay Mountaineering Club, touched on the economics of the venture by Glacier Resorts Ltd in a time when the ski industry is hemorrhaging.
“Hard-headed economics majors out there and some shrewd business majors look at this project and say this does not compute economically and financially,” said Kratky, speaking for some 350 members of the KMC.
“(Building) this particular project especially now in the year (2012), after an economical meltdown in the world in 2008, and we’re asking investors to invest in one of the most risky ventures in global capital and that is investing in a ski hill . . . especially at a time when the ski industry is under terrific stress in all of British Columbia and visit days are down.”
The affect on the grizzly population; water from the Jumbo Glacier; money needed to build, and maintain, the road through avalanche country, far outweigh reason for the project to continue was the message from speaker after speaker.
“There are enough developments already to sustain the rich people who want to come and play here,” James explained.
“What is going to be left for those people who want to come and see what we have if the last grizzly bear is chased off the top of the mountains, if our unique diversity is destroyed . . . what will they come and see?”
Kivi asked the crowd to continue to fight this decision with whatever means people had.
The West Kootenay Coalition for Jumbo Wild continues to engage in discussions with sister organizations in the East Kootenay, Jumbo Creek Conservation Society in Kimberley and Wildsight in Invermere — which has the support of retired NHL superstar Scott Niedermayer — to continue the fight.
