Photo: A new study warns that the proposed Zincton resort in British Columbia’s Central Selkirks could fragment a critical wildlife corridor for grizzlies, wolverines and other species / Photo submitted by Tess McEnroe / Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
By Sonal Gupta
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Canada’s National Observer
A new study conducted by the Ktunaxa First Nation shows that a proposed all-season resort planned in the southern interior of British Columbia threatens a critical wildlife corridor that is essential for grizzlies, wolverines and cultural connections to the land.
Planned for the Goat Range of the Selkirk Mountains, the project would cover about 4,500 hectares of private and Crown land roughly 16 kilometres east of New Denver, near the former mining community of Zincton. The proposed resort sits on a narrow stretch of wilderness along Highway 31A between Slocan and Kootenay lakes — an area that serves as a crucial north–south passage for wildlife, said Nikki Heim, wildlife ecologist and co-author of the study. She describes the corridor as “a very narrow passage on that bigger, broader landscape,” where keeping these animals connected is essential.
If the Zincton All-Season Resort goes ahead as currently planned, researchers warn it could fracture a vital wildlife corridor in the Selkirk Mountains. The resort project, touted as a backcountry retreat with skiing, biking and trails into the wilderness, could break the vast open range into isolated patches of land where grizzlies, wolverines and other species could lose their last paths through the mountains as more roads, trails and recreation areas are built.
Michael Proctor, an independent ecologist with over three decades of experience studying grizzlies across the Purcell and Selkirk Mountains, volunteered his expertise for the Ktunaxa study. He said he is more concerned with the resort’s location rather than the concept of ski resorts themselves. “Ski areas aren’t inherently bad. The issue for me is it’s right smack dab in the middle of what is probably the only viable corridor to this population,” he said.
Only about 30 grizzly bears remain south of the highway 31A, making the corridor the last link connecting them to larger populations farther north, Heim said. Grizzly bears need to remain connected as isolating populations often leads to local extinctions over time.
“There is already some fragmentation occurring and it’s very critical that a smaller population is able to have connections with that larger population,” Heim said.
The study combined Indigenous knowledge and Western science to assess the proposed resort’s impacts by integrating oral histories, cultural value and computer modeling of cumulative effects — an old Ktunaxa concept meaning all things are connected and what affects one impacts the whole, Heim said.
The study also found that the project would affect huckleberry patches, a key food source for wildlife including grizzly bears, as well as an important part of Ktunaxa cultural harvests and ceremonies. It is estimated that resort development could result in the loss of up to 94 per cent of the high-quality huckleberry in the resort area, totaling about 182 hectares across the study region.
Proctor said this loss would ripple through the ecosystem. “When these huckleberry patches face heavy foot traffic, they stop doing what they’re supposed to — help bears thrive,” Proctor said.
Winter disruptions pose another threat, especially to denning bears. Mothers disturbed in their dens may abandon them, endangering their cubs. Proctor pointed to Whitewater Creek valley — what he calls “a local, regional, and possibly national treasure” — where the public can still safely see grizzlies in their natural environment. Increased tourism, he said, could “certainly denigrate the ability of this valley and trail to provide this rare type of experience.”
The report also shows that climate change — bringing less snow and changing water flows — could magnify the impact of development on the habitats.
“These are slow problems that take decades to become true,” Proctor said. “The development pressure moves forward like a one-way ratchet — it never goes backwards.”
These impacts will be deeply felt by the Ktunaxa people, who have stewarded this land for generations. Chad Luke, a Ktunaxa cultural steward and co-author of the study, said the nation’s stance is rooted in respect for the land’s recovery from past development. “As Ktunaxa we say, ‘let the land continue to heal from the previous human footprints,’” Luke said in a press release. “Just because the projects were initiated doesn’t mean they need to continue.”
The Ktunaxa Nation has opposed the Zincton resort proposal since it was first introduced in 2019, warning that it threatens both the region’s ecosystem and areas of cultural significance. Despite ongoing calls from the Ktunaxa, the Sinixt Confederacy, environmental groups and local residents for one, the BC government declined a full environmental review in July. The decision was based on the project’s proposed 1,700-bed capacity, which falls below the 2,000-bed threshold required for an automatic assessment.
Proctor said that while he has no position for or against development, such thresholds fail to address the true scale of environmental risk. “A more relevant measure is how big are the impacts,” he said. “If they’re big impacts in a small area, maybe it justifies an assessment.”
Responsibility for reviewing the Zincton proposal now lies with the province’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture’s mountain resorts branch, which environmentalists say conducts a less thorough evaluation than a full environmental assessment.
The province has not yet advanced the proposed Zincton mountain resort project to its next stage, said Nadine Raynolds, director of communities and conservation with the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. She hopes the province will take a closer look at the proposal and said a thorough review should examine the project’s environmental footprint, as well as its social, economic and cultural impacts on the region before any decisions are made.
Raynolds compared the current project to the decades-long battle over the now-defunct Jumbo Glacier Resort — another proposed year-round ski area in southeastern BC that met fierce resistance from the Ktunaxa Nation and local communities. “Jumbo was not the right place for development,” Raynolds said. “The province kept entertaining the idea when the Ktunaxa Nation said no.”
That project was eventually scrapped, and the area has since been designated a protected Indigenous conservation area known as Qat’muk. Raynolds said she hopes that with BC’s adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2019, the province will ensure Indigenous consent remains central to future land-use decisions.
Canada’s National Observer reached out to the Ktunaxa Nation for further comments on the study’s findings and what the next steps might be for their involvement.
Trish Barnes, the Nation’s public relations coordinator, said the leadership is currently being briefed and they are expected to provide a formal statement later this month.
“Ktunaxa Nation Council is holding off commenting for now,” Barnes said. “We are assessing where this information fits into the current state of proposals in the area and what the Nation’s position is.”