Despite growing concerns about the ill-effects of fracking, gas exploration has been booming in northern British Columbia—including Shell Canada’s controversial bid to tap into some of the province’s sacred salmon and steelhead headwaters. Drake contributor Mark Hume is reporting today that Shell is giving up its rights to shale gas in the iconic wilderness stretch that forms the Skeena, Nass, and Stikine rivers.
Via The Globe and Mail:
“The oil and gas ban—which was agreed to in long discussions between the provincial government, Shell Canada and the Tahltan Central Council—heads off a confrontation over environmental issues and native rights that threatened to explode on the international stage, had drilling resumed in the area 400 kilometres north of Smithers.
“By some estimates, shale-gas development in the Sacred Headwaters could have led to the drilling of 4,000 wells and the building of 3,000 kilometres of roads. None of that activity will now take place. But The Globe has learned that the government hasn’t finished yet with plans to protect the Sacred Headwaters, and that the oil and gas ban may be followed by some restrictions on mining activity as well.”
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.