The Elk Valley in southeast British Columbia is home to Canada’s four largest coal mines. With a proposed mine expansion moving through environmental assessment, people on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border worry the valley’s decades-old pollution problem could get even worse. Industrial coal mining in the Elk Valley goes back more than 50 years. The valley’s mines, currently owned by Elk Valley Resources (EVR), supply 77% of Canada’s metallurgical coal, a grade of coal used in steel making, according to a 2024 report produced for EVR. The vast majority of this coal was exported to Asia. EVR’s largest mine, Fording River Operations (FRO), is expected to run out of coal within a decade. The proposed Fording River Extension (FRX) would open 2,031 hectares (5,019 acres) on Castle Mountain, adjacent to the existing mine, and operate for about 35 years. The FRX is currently moving through a coordinated federal-provincial environmental impact assessment. Three proposed new coal mines, not linked to EVR, are also currently in the environmental assessment process. The Fording River Operations mine, in the Elk Valley, British Columbia. The mountain top removal mining process dramatically alters topography and drainage patterns, and creates large volumes of waste rock. Image by Siobhán Winters/Wildsight. Proponents maintain the FRX is necessary to sustain economic benefits post FRO-closure, such as gross domestic product contributions, payments to governments and jobs. Others question the wisdom of expanding mining whilst unabated pollution threatens ecosystems, wildlife and livelihoods across the region. The Ktunaxa Nation Council, representing Ktunaxa…This article was originally published on Mongabay

INVERMERE, Canada — Mark Thomas, Shuswap Band salmon chief, welcomes groups of students to a narrow stretch of the Columbia River, between the Rocky and Purcell mountains in western Canada. It’s late May, and snow still graces the distant peaks. For the past five months, students from schools nearby towns have raised sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in their classrooms. They have watched pea-sized eggs transform into tiny, newly hatched fish known as alevin, with an egg sac still attached to their silvery bodies, and then to free-swimming fry. This morning, they will slip the fry into the river, just downstream from its headwaters in the province of British Columbia. “When you go down to the river, tell the water your name, introduce yourself to the water spirits,” Thomas tells them. “Then you can pray for whatever you want. You can pray to be smarter, or taller. You can pray for your family — or the fish.” Thomas begins by smudging the group as part of a traditional ceremony, using an eagle’s wing to gently waft smoke from a bundle of juniper and sage that is smoldering in an abalone shell. The kids then make their way to the riverbank and, to the sounds of drumming and traditional song, each takes a plastic cup with a fish inside. When they are ready, they send it down a DIY funnel and watch the tiny fry swim away. The morning’s fry release, through the Fish-in-Schools program, and an afternoon ceremonial release for community…This article was originally published on Mongabay