Guest post by our researcher Amy Corbin

All summer, the Takla of British Columbia blockaded road access to Bear Mountain and Bear Lake, a sacred landscape in which Imperial Metals wants to set up a copper mine.  It’s another courageous stand against unregulated resource development in British Columbia, one of the most crowded battlegrounds in the world when it comes to indigenous land rights. Dozens of mining and logging projects are ongoing and planned—while the First Nations there struggle to negotiate an overarching framework for land management instead of having to react defensively against each individual project (see our reports on Amazay Lake, Klabona, and Haida Gwaii for details).

Just as they halted a gold mine that would have filled Amazay Lake with acid-rock waste, the Takla watched Imperial Metals begin to drill test holes on Bear Mountain. When the B.C. government allowed the test drilling to occur before an environmental assessment is completed, and when negotiations with the government stalled, the Takla stood their ground—literally. Blocking the roads needed to access the test holes, Takla Chief Dolly Abraham said, “The situation is urgent… Takla has made it clear to successive Mines Ministers and to Imperial Metals that this area is off limits for mining and will be protected at all costs.” The Takla fear irreparable damage to salmon spawning grounds, and are also protesting the lack of clean-up at other mine sites that are leaking toxic chemicals. They recently ended the blockade in an effort to resume talks with the government, now that Imperial’s drilling has been temporarily halted.

The Takla Nation is one to keep an eye on. They are determined and organized in their campaign for long-term land use planning, and their communication to those of us outside the province is a model for grassroots organizing. See their new Web site and lend them support during the next few months. Spokesperson J.P. LaPlante tells me that the upcoming winter months are their window of opportunity to make progress on the negotiations before the spring thaw makes it possible for Imperial to start drilling again.