RIVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Posted In: Taku

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.

We hope that all of you will be thinking of the Taku today and in the coming weeks and months as well. British Columbia, Alaska and Canadian federal agencies will be making a decision regarding the use of huge hoverbarges hauled or pushed up and down the Taku by experimental and untested "amphitrac" amphibious vehicles in the coming weeks and months. The hoverbarges would haul tons of mineral concentrate down river and return with loads of diesel fuel and toxic chemical reagents. More information on the ongoing environmental assessment and permitting processes and how you can get involved can be found elsewhere on the Rivers Without Borders site.