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Bears in the News
Will Patric : Sep 15.2009While traveling to the latest Taku Land Use Planning meeting in Atlin, British Columbia, I picked up a copy of the Globe and Mail. A front page story (9/9/09) had this headline: “Bearing the brunt of an ecological crisis: Grizzlies starve as salmon disappear.” The article linked an alarming drop in grizzly bear observations in the central coast region of the Province to dwindling salmon runs.
British Columbia’s wild salmon crisis, following the collapse of salmon fisheries in Washington, Oregon, and California, is not new news, as the subject has received extensive coverage in recent months. And the connection to bears, though a new twist, was not about the transboundary Taku region. Nonetheless, the article underscored perfectly why I was bound for Atlin to engage in the Taku Land Use Planning Process, and why Rivers Without Borders feels that the outcome of this process, determining the fate of the Taku, is so critical.
The Taku watershed represents some of British Columbia and southeast Alaska’s most significant wild salmon habitat. Its 3700 km’s support strong populations of all five native Pacific salmon species. As salmon stocks plunge in heavily impacted watersheds to the south, and climate change pressures become increasingly evident, the spectacular and remote Taku stands out as one of North America’s premier wild salmon strongholds because it is entirely intact, complete, and essentially pristine.
Likewise, the Taku is widely recognized as an exceptional salmon-grizzly bear system supporting Ursus arctos in robust numbers. Where bears are doing well, other iconic northern wildlife – moose, caribou, thinhorn sheep, mountain goats – also thrive.
The Taku is a fully functioning natural ecosystem working perfectly. Rivers Without Borders is committed to doing all it can to keep it that way. And while we want to raise awareness about the Taku and its conservation potential, we are striving to keep it out of the news as well. .