RIVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

The Taku is a “River to Watch” on the 2010 BC Endangered Rivers List

 The Taku’s placement as a ‘River to watch’ on the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC’s annual Endangered Rivers List is a distinction that many people in both BC and Alaska hope will never amount to anything.

The nearly two million hectare Taku watershed straddles the border between northwestern BC and Southeast Alaska. It is vast, intact and abundant wilderness region. The Taku River at the watershed’s heart is the third largest salmon producer in BC, hosting all five species of wild Pacific salmon in an intact wilderness watershed uncontaminated by sea lice, and not fragmented by roads and other industrial development.

“In terms of what is at stake, for BC, for the local Taku River Tlingit First Nation, for Pacific salmon populations; the Taku would be high on any list. The fact that we are fortunate enough to still have an opportunity to protect the ecological and cultural values in this region, gives us the position of a ‘river to watch’” said Nola Poirier with Rivers Without Borders.

Until recently, a BC based junior mining company, Redfern Resources, was working to reopen the Tulsequah Chief mine, one of the company’s two sites in the watershed (both abandoned since the 1950’s). Redfern had essentially gained approval for the mine before they went bankrupt in 2009.  Mining in this region would result in roads that would fragment key habitat, and acid mine drainage that would pollute key downstream salmon rearing sites.

The threat of mining upstream from the watershed’s most valuable salmon habitat persists. In the land use planning (LUP) process that has been underway between the BC government and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN), BC has been determined to keep this part of the watershed open for mining.

 “There is a real and present danger, but that’s not the only possible outcome. As much as the land use planning process has the power to devastate the river’s sensitive ecology, the LUP could instead be an opportunity to safeguard it,” said Poirier.

“If people were aware of what’s at stake in the Taku, that we have an opportunity not to repeat the mistakes we made in the Fraser River, mistakes that have so devastated salmon populations; I’m sure BC would be pressured to do everything they could to protect salmon values in the Taku. Actually, I hope the Taku remains river to watch – a river where we get it right.”

For more information:      

www.riverswithoutborders.org
 www.takulegacy.org
Endangered Rivers Backgrounder.