When the American buffalo rebounded from near-extinction and gray wolves returned to the wild, they found their refuge in the tawny grasslands and pine-covered ridges of Yellowstone National Park. When grizzly bears lost most of their habitat to logging and development, the northern Rockies provided them with the thousands of square miles of wild forests and meadows they needed to survive. Without the vast stretches of Rockies wilderness, where will the next species go to be replenished?

Two new industrial coal mining proposals are also threatening the Canadian headwaters of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. One of these disastrous projects would put an open-pit coalmine just 25 miles upstream of Montana’s Glacier National Park, removing a mountaintop and dumping waste in a pristine valley in the process.

The second proposal, for a massive coalbed methane project, would require a dense network of roads that would destroy prime habitat for grizzly bears and other wildlife. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic wastewater produced by miles of pipelines and wells would pollute the pristine Flathead River, which originates in British Columbia and flows south into Montana where it forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park. The river and its surrounding valley form the heart of the Crown of the Continent ecosystem, which is home to wolves, grizzly bears, wolverines and lynx.

Tell the Canadian government to protect Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park from industrial coal mining development.

Photo credits: Bear grass and moon at twilight, © Randy Beacham. Bison with calf, © Laura Romin & Larry Dalton, Wildlife Reflections Photography.