Enbridge says the pipeline would pump $4.3 billion into the economy and create 1,150 new jobs, benefiting towns in B.C.'s economically depressed northeast, like Burns Lake, pictured here.
Tyler Thomas of the Saik’uz nation scans his territory, which the pipeline would bisect. The Saik’uz are one of more than 75 First Nation groups to speak out against the project. “Our nations are the wall this pipeline will not break through,” says Larry Nooski, Chief of the Nadleh Whut’en.
The pipeline would cross hundreds of waterways, including the Parsnip River, seen here flowing north to the Arctic Ocean. The Vancouver-based nonprofit Forest Ethics is worried about another Enbridge spill, like the one that hit Michigan last July when a million gallons of oil leaked from a pipeline into the Kalamazoo River. “A spill on the Northern Gateway could go a long way toward wiping out 56,000 tourism and fishing jobs in B.C.,” says Nikki Skuce of Forest Ethics. "Those all depend on clean water."
After tunneling through the Rocky Mountains, the proposed pipeline would cross within a half mile of the northern border of Monkman Provincial Park and its 180-foot Kinuseo Falls. Monkman is one of 15 designated recreation and protected areas the pipeline would abut.
Osborne snapped this photo of a moose and her calf a quarter mile from the proposed conduit.
If built, a 90-foot wide strip of clear-cut would run through hundreds of miles of Canada’s forests.
Some 225 oil tankers a year will navigate the rough waters just west of the Great Bear Rainforest. “Nobody can guarantee us that there will be no spills,” says Kyle Clifton of the Git’ga’at nation, which is based in the Great Bear Rainforest. “We’re going to wake up every morning wondering if this is the day our community dies.”
Comments
LightHawk, a nonprofit conservation organization, provides flight as a tool to advance conservation in North and Central America. LightHawk is pleased to be partnering with Neil Ever Osborne, International League of Conservation Photographers, Forest Ethics and Pacific Wild to make these aerial photographs possible. Flights were also provided to First Nations leaders so that they could see the true scope of the pipeline route. Learn more about the pipeline threats at www.lighthawk.org, www.ilcp.com, www.forestethics.org and www.pacificwild.org.
Flag This