RIVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Welcome Will Patric: RWB’s new executive director!

Will brings two decades of conservation campaign experience in the western U.S. to RWB.  This includes many years with the Mineral Policy Center (now Earthworks) helping communities confront environmental impacts of mining, and more recently with The Wilderness Society’s Northern Rockies office advocating for visionary, conservation oriented management by public lands agencies.  As Executive Director, Will hopes to advance the efforts of all those before him who have worked tirelessly and passionately to protect North America’s wildest watersheds and the interests of people that have long called this magnificent transboundary region home.

Taku Land Use and Wildlife Management

Congratulations to the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN) for their recent Framework Agreement signing with BC for shared decision making respecting land use and wildlife management. 

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The Taku’s Wild Heart Remains Unbroken! Thanks Nola!

On this Valentine’s Day, I am thinking back to February 2005 when Rivers Without Borders (then the Transboundary Watershed Alliance) sent Cupid off to Ottawa to deliver over 1000 Valentine’s cards to the Prime Minister. Then Prime Minister Paul Martin was otherwise engaged, so Cupid delivered the Valentines to MP Peter Stoffer, a long time friend of the Taku and outspoken defender of wild salmon. Cupid was our own Nola Poirier and the Valentine’s cards implored the Canadian government to leave the wild heart of the Taku unbroken. Three years later, the Taku remains the biggest intact watershed left on the west coast of North America, and is perhaps the largest intact, fully functioning wild salmon watershed in the world.

Sadly, Rivers Without Borders can no longer claim to have Cupid on its staff roster. Nola Poirier moved on to other good work this January, and we miss her and the creativity and compassion she infected us all with. This Valentine’s Day the Canadian government is again poised to make a decision regarding the wild heart of the Taku. While Nola and her alter-ego Cupid won’t be sending poetic epistles off to the Canadian Prime Minister today, we know that she still holds the Taku and the other transboundary rivers in her heart.

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Whitehorse office - upward and onward

Rivers Without Borders’ (RWB) Whitehorse office has changed locations… South-facing, Grey Mountain viewing, a skyscraping second storey location (two storeys short of the maximum in Whitehorse). After many years of being the fortunate tenants of the generous and loving Yukon Conservation Society (YCS) staffers, RWB has made a difficult decision to spread its wings, and put itself into position for some passive Vitamin D exposure.

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Happy New Year from Rivers Without Borders!

All of us at Rivers Without Borders hope that everyone out there had an excellent holiday season, no matter how or when you celebrate it. Living north of 60, Solstice is a big celebration for my family and many of our friends. We hanker for that longest night that symbolizes the eventual return of the sun, synthesis of vitamin D, … and a little later even outdoor warmth, bears and plants with leaves.

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Trout Unlimited: Fish in a dangerous time

Trout Unlimited (TU) recently completed a comprehensive study assessing threats to the long-term well being of trout and salmon in the United States.  Their findings are somewhat grim, but TU proposes a number of practical solutions to slow the impact of rising water temperatures and human encroachment upon trout and salmon habitat.  Healing Troubled Waters: Preparing Trout and Salmon Habitat For A Changing Climate is download-able in pdf format from the TU website. 

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Galore Creek Collapse Provides Lessons for Alaska

With the Galore Creek mine dead in the water, British Columbia’s plans for an electrical line into the Stikine region are also now in question. Investor confidence in the BC mining industry has been shaken, while the problems of mining companies underestimating costs and relying on faulty feasibility studies are in the spotlight. People and communities that bet on the promises of Galore Creek will take a hit. Alaska should heed several key lessons from this situation.

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Balance

Generous friends made their small Yukon cabin available to my girlfriend and I this weekend. I live in the north in large part because of the incredible wild country up here, so it was quite jarring to travel just those few miles from town and have it dawn on me how disconnected from place I have become in the past few months. Too many miles on the road and in the air. Furtive channel surfing in the austere uniformity of hotel rooms while sleep eludes me. Chasing wireless in cafes, airports and lobbies. Ignoring my fellow travelers in favour of my laptop on planes, trains and taxi rides.

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Shannon McPhail: Volunteer Executive Director, Leader

I recently had the opportunity to spend a little time at Hollyhock Institute on Cortes Island, BC.  Hollyhock offered a week-long course called the Canadian Environmental Leadership Program, and 30 conservationists/lawyers/ environmentalists/social justice advocates were in attendance, including Shannon McPhail, executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC).  I asked Shannon to elaborate upon a question that participants were invited to respond to at the introduction of the program, and the question was: "why do you do the work that you do?"  Her feedback makes Rivers Without Borders hope it will be able to partner more closely with Shannon and SWCC in the future.

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Thankful for the Taku

 As we head into the annual turkey day celebrations in the US my friends and neighbors and I are thinking more of fins than feathers.  We have a large Taku king salmon from this past season marinating and almost ready for the grill, along with crabs, shrimp and halibut from the Taku area.  This wilderness watershed provides much in the way of jobs, food, recreation and culture to Juneau and we are very thankful for this bounty.  

Rivers Without Borders is also thankful that we have been able to work closely with our allies on both sides of the border to protect the Taku and its contribution to the regional economy and the thousands of families dependent on its resources.  But we recognize that maintaining this resource takes vigilance.  The next year will be critical to the future of the Taku as Redcorp attempts to develop its unproven hoverbarge plan and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation moves into detailed land planning for the Taku watershed.  If all goes well for us and our allies we can look forward to the Taku providing the Thanksgiving feast for many years to come.