The picturesue Bulkley Valley, nestled in northwestern British Columbia, presents an idyllic image of rural life. In these lands, the Wet’suwet’en First Nation maintain their livelihoods and governance on their traditional territory, while nearby, settlers have flourished in agriculture, forestry, mining and tourism over the past hundred years. Divergent interests have split these constituencies in the past, but now Aboriginal and settler communities have found common cause against a proposal promoted by the provincial government: coal bed methane development.

Coal bed methane is a form of unconventional natural gas trapped in coal seams. Although it exists in different states, the methane is most often absorbed into the coal by high water pressure. When water is removed from a coal seam, lowering the pressure, the methane is released and tends to follow the water as it is pumped to the surface.

To extract the methane, numerous wells must be drilled into the coal deposit—far more wells than are typically required for conventional gas development. In addition to the potential industrialization of the landscape, coal bed methane wells often produce large amounts of highly saline or toxic waste water that threatens local aquifers and watersheds.