Coalbed Methane in the Skeena watershed

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

From: Todd Stockner <stockner>
Date: April 22, 2008 11:04:38 AM PDT (CA)
To: Babine Norlakes <clegg>
Cc: SWCC <info>, Shannon McPhail <shannon>
Subject: Coalbed Methane in the Skeena watershed


Hello fellow guides and business owners in the Northwest,


As you all know by now I am working with the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC) to keep Shell from developing a coalbed methane gas field in the Klappan, or Sacred Headwaters:
�the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass, and Stikine rivers.


The SWCC has landed a golden opportunity this week to meet directly with Premier Gordon Campbell in Terrace on Thursday (or possibly early next week in Vancouver) and inform him directly of the dire nature of this project and the probable impacts it will have on wild salmon and steelhead, thus on our and many other businesses in the Northwest. We would like to present him with as many letters of opposition as possible to make the point loud and clear that this development is not appropriate for the Skeena watershed.


We need letters of opposition from business owners, interest groups, NGO's, First Nations, community leaders, etc. sent to the Premier and cc'd to us before Wednesday afternoon!� It's a simple letter - doesn't have to give all the reasons why we oppose coalbed methane, it just needs to cover at least two of these three points:


1.) The Sacred Headwaters is home to 3� very important salmon and wildlife watersheds that are an important part of our economy
2.) We are opposed to CBM in the Sacred Headwaters due to the many concerns surrounding this development
3.) We are calling on the Premier and his government to stop cbm drilling in the Sacred Headwaters


We need NUMBERS - as many of these letters as possible - please have people email them to me, fax me (same as my phone number) or drop them off in person!� Don't forget about the gun clubs, fishermen groups, amnesty, etc.� I am relying on the relationships that you have within your communities to make this happen.� Reach out to all your members, if they don't have a business or another group that can sign on - they will know somebody that can AND they can send an instant online fax from our website (as an individual if they don't have a business or group) at�www.skeenawatershed.com


So - can you help?


It is for this reason that I am writing and asking you all to take a few minutes to do this, and pass this email onto to others who can also help.
If you can't do this by tomorrow afternoon or Thursday, do it anyway, next week, in a few days, whenever.�


Here are the email addresses to send to:


Campbell:
premier@gov.bc.ca


CC to:
info@skeenawatershed.com


I am including my own letter as a possible template for anyone who wants to use it.


Thank �you all for your attention to this urgent matter. Please forward this email to anyone who may be able to help.




�

[Darian]

Hmmmm,.... I wonder how much influence a letter from us will have on a politician from a foreign country

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Your right Darian,

Heard the Canadian Fish & Wildlife folks don't like us Yanks telling them how to run their fisheries.

This was a story I heard about Americans telling them to stop the logging and commercial fishing so we could enjoy better steelheading.

Well, that's about all they got to sell I guess, trees and fish?

[Darian]

Hi Bill,.... I read an article, recently, that mentioned we (the US) had attempted to set up talks with Canada about obtaining water rights from them. Their response was to ignore the request for talks.....