Save BC's 3 Great Free-flowing Salmon Rivers

A jetboat speeds up the Alaskan delta of the 380-mile Stikine River, which flows from northern British Columbia, Canada. Image copyright www.amandacastleman.com.

Glacial silt rises over the Stikine. Image: AC.

Explorer and Author Wade Davis made a plea for the great free-flowing salmon rivers of his northern BC home – the Stikine, Skeena and Nass – at last night's National Geographic Live lecture. Here's hoping the Tahltan elders and other Canadians can block the mines and establish a Tribal Heritage Reserve.

Davis's Patagonia essay echoes some of his lecture: "For more than a decade, the Tahltan clans, Wolf and Crow, have actively opposed these assaults on their land, rivers and lakes. Men, women and children, old and young, even elders in wheelchairs have endured rain and snow, blockading the only road access to the interior. For them the Sacred Headwaters is home, their kitchen and sanctuary, the burial grounds of their ancestors and the nursery of generations as yet unborn…

"But now everything hangs in the balance. The fate of the country will be decided in the coming year... Surely no amount of methane gas, coal, copper or gold can compensate for the sacrifice of a place that can be the Sacred Headwaters for all citizens of the world?"

Learn more at www.sacredheadwaters.com.