RIVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

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Coordinating Efforts to Protect the Taku

Wild salmon advocates from both Canada and the U.S. are calling on the province of British Columbia and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation to put the ecological needs of salmon foremost in the ongoing land use planning process.  Alarming reports of salmon declines in the Fraser River have been a wake up call for efforts to protect salmon habitat in the Taku. 

The Taku watershed is widely recognized as the B.C.–Alaska transboundary region’s most significant salmon system.  Hosting robust populations of the five Pacific salmon species, it is fully intact and nearly pristine (some acid mine drainage from the abandoned Tulsequah mine site being the notable exception).  The Taku requires little management other than the vision to keep it the extraordinary salmon asset that it is.

This has been the basic message of the Wild Salmon Center, the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Rivers Without Borders, and others.  Planners are talking about “world class” salmon management for the Taku, and non-government organizations are lining up to help make a tremendous wild salmon conservation opportunity happen. 

Organizations with broader conservation mandates are also being heard.  They understand that, in a time of climate change, a big, diverse, and totally intact ecosystem like the Taku watershed is the quintessential biological refugia, offering sufficient habitat diversity, linkages, and enduring features for fauna and flora to continue thriving despite climate change pressures. 

Such has been the general message of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada, Audubon Alaska, David Suzuki Foundation, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, The Wilderness Society, Western Canada Wilderness Committee, Greenpeace, The Nature Conservancy, and Sierra Club B.C., among others. 

The public is weighing in too.  To date nearly 2300 people have contacted government asking that the Taku be protected through the land use plan.  Wild salmon conservation and biological diversity needs continue to be articulated, as do less quantifiable points about the importance of the wild Taku to First Nation culture and the spectacular beauty of place that must not be squandered. 

Rivers Without Borders is grateful to all who are giving voice to the wild Taku.  Keep on!  If you haven’t yet sent one of our on-line letters click here to TAKE ACTION.