Over the past several days, two separate proposals for tenure and development of land in the Purcell Mountain region off of East Shore areas have come to the public’s attention and are piquing the interest of many residents. The two proposals came to the general public’s attention at roughly the same time, but have nothing to do with each other, except that they conflict with one another as far as land use/recreation concept goes.
North West Mountain Experience (Daniel Morton ACMG ski guide) is applying for a commercial backcountry ski lodge (non-mechanized) at Armour Mountain, northeast of Rose Pass. The tenure area is relatively small (just over 10,000 hectares) and is in the upper St. Mary River just south of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy. He put in a notice advertising the application and notifying of the public feedback period in the April Mainstreet. Watch for notice about a possible meeting held by Morton to answer questions in the coming days. His application can be found at the following (it is open for comments until May 6):
https://arfd.gov.bc.ca/
The other application (substantially bigger – over 70,000 hectares) has been put in by Retallack Lodge and covers a very large area, including much of the southern Purcell Mountains south of the wilderness conservancy, which isn’t already covered by existing tenures. The application includes a variety of guided adventure tourism activities such as heliskiing and helihiking and a lodge and huts. The Lower Kootenay Band of the Ktunaxa Nation has partnered with Retallack in this proposal. There has been rumour about a public meeting to be held, yet to be specified. (Possibly on April 23 at the Gray Creek Hall – watch for further details). There was no notice posted in the Mainstreet, although that may be coming.Their application can be found at the following (it is open for comments until May 13):
https://arfd.gov.bc.ca/
Please stay informed, come to the public meetings and voice your concerns and/or your support. Watch for further details coming soon!