About the Region
Unuk Watershed
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The spectacular Unuk is small, but it packs a wallop. At 80 miles (130 km) long and draining some 1500 square miles (3885 km2), it is dwarved by its vast neighbour the Iskut-Stikine. But size doesn’t matter in the case of the Unuk. It beats out its larger northern cousin with the largest runs of king (Chinook) salmon in southern Southeast Alaska and all five species of wild Pacific salmon come home to its waters.
The rich eulachon (aka candlefish or ooligan) runs in the Unuk make it a preferred location for that fishery by both people and seals in the spring. It bristles with diversity ranging from Alpine Tundra to the intact coastal temperate rainforest that covers much of the Alaskan portion of the watershed. Wolf, lynx, grizzly and black bears, fisher, mountain goat, moose, and black-tail deer call it home. It is thought that rare peregrine falcons nest in the remote reaches of the Unuk. U.S. conservationists managed to protect the entire lower river within Misty Fjords National Monument. More recently, their Canadian peers secured the smaller Border Lake Provincial Park on the Canadian side.
Threats
Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell mine proposal briefing. Click image to view or download pdf.
In connection with the NTL extension of the power grid up to Bob Quinn Lake, and the power generated by the Iskut River hydroelectric project cluster, a large mine, the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell mine has been proposed by Seabridge Gold.