I was born and raised in Fernie… My family goes back to the beginning of the valley, I grew up hearing stories about underground mining, logging trees the size of the train, making moon shine up the valleys, running from the big fires and how much the hunting has deteriorated.
Well, of course growing up here allowed me the opportunity to take part in nearly every outdoor activity the valley offers, I was in grade 5-6 when the ski hill sold…. We had just come out of a major local depression when the mines shut down in 93’… guys were selling their stuff for what they owed, people packed up U-Hauls and left in the middle of the night with their families in search of work… All of a sudden the ski hill sold, land prices sky rocketed and in came the money…
By the time I graduated houses were worth too much. A local kid had no hope buying a place, nor finding a job other than at the mines. I went to post secondary and found myself working in the Alberta oilpatch…..
Now… here I am, pretty high up in the scale of things, making the kind of money needed to buy a house there… I had to give up my early 20’s to do it… living in camps, working in the cold, wind and toxic conditions.
I’m a father now… raising my son in an Alberta Boom town and it breaks my heart. I can’t wait to move back to the valley, get a job at the mine, come home every day, make way less money but have a quality life with the woman I love and live in the most beautiful place in Canada.
Talk of this drilling in the flathead should be good news for me then right????… I mean, I could walk into a very high paying job there with no problem, especially boasting I’m a long time local… I could have the life I want, buy new and shiny things whenever I want…. Work my way up there… they say there is a good 15 years drilling there if this project goes thru… I bet I could damn near retire off it….
The problem is tho……….. if they drill there, most of the reasons I want to go home will be gone. The idea of drilling the flathead scares me, the roads they will build, the services they will need, the chemicals they use, the WATER they use, the water they contaminate… for short term gain on Coal Bed Methane….Not worth it!!! The industry in inherently environmentally destructive… despite their efforts…
I’d rather save my pennies then buy shiny stuff whenever I want…. I’d rather take my son out like my father took me, deep into the Flathead, fishing hunting and sharing stories over the fire.
I think as long as we still get to hunt, fish, use ATV’s and snowmobiles responsibly… they should protect it…. All we need to do is keep big industry out. I’m an educated slacker redneck with goals, one who believes strongly in long term sustainability…..
I’m not interested in listening to politicians, or green peace…. They’re both ugly and look dumb.
