In the far northwest corner of British Columbia, the Taku River watershed, lying to the south of the town of Atlin and east of the Alaska Panhandle from Skagway all the way south to Juneau Alaska, could offer our last best chance to preserve a virtually intact watershed. The Taku River is fed by a number of rivers and their tributary streams from mountains ranging up to 2500metres in elevation, and the great Taku Glacier, lying mostly in Alaska. Streams that start as thin blue lines on a map of the area join rivers that are tributaries to the Taku River, and reach the waters of the Pacific Ocean at Juneau.
Any armchair explorer who studies a map of the area could spend pleasant spine-tingling hours imagining the wilderness potential of this watershed without roads.
The Taku watershed is one of North America's largest, unroaded, unprotected watersheds and probably the continent's richest wildlife habitat. Many species of migratory birds, hawks, eagles and other birds of prey share the watershed with black and grizzly bears, moose, caribou and mountain goats. It's likely wolves, foxes, wolverine, lynx and cougar are attracted to the area. The Taku River supports abundant runs of all five species of wild Pacific salmon.
The Taku lies within the traditional territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation. For thousands of years and uncounted generations, the Taku River Tlingit experienced an intimacy with their territory, the protection of its isolation, its bounty and its hardships. Abundant wildlife provided food and clothing and forests provided fire wood to warm their dwellings through the long, cold northern nights. The river provided access to the Pacific Ocean, and the natural wealth offered by the marine environment.
But the river brought strangers to their land. And change. That change would see newcomers run roughshod over their homeland, traditions, and their sovereignty.
The Taku River Tlingit are nearing the final stages in land claims negotiations with the Canadian federal and BC provincial governments, a process that has ground slowly over too many years. The completion of negotiations will likely result in the area being placed under Tlingit jurisdiction.
Recently the roughshod tactics have begun again in the land of the Tlingits, this time by a mining company, aided and abetted by Premier Campbell's Liberal provincial government.
The Tulsequah Chief mine on the Tulsequah River where it flows into the Taku was developed and operated by Cominco Ltd. Gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc ores were barged down the Taku River to Juneau where they could be loaded on ships. In 1957, due to low metal prices, the mine was closed. Local residents recall extensive declines in salmon populations and the death of trees along the river bank during the mine's operation. Acid mine drainage from tailings at the site continues still.
In 1987, Redfern Resources Ltd., a Vancouver based junior mining company, purchased the Tulsequah Chief property with plans to reopen the mine. In the new plan, barging ore down the Taku River has been deemed financially unviable. Redfern proposes instead, to punch a road 160 km north from Tulsequah, through the pristine watershed to Atlin. Cost estimates for the road range from 33- to-56 million dollars.
At Atlin, the Tulsequah road would connect with highway 7 to Jakes Corner in the Yukon, highway 8 to Carcross and highway 2, now south again, down across the north-west corner of BC to tidewater and ships at Skagway, Alaska. The distance from the mine site to Skagway, by road, will be about 420 km.
There are so many strikes against reopening the Tulsequah Chief mine that it is unlikely the mine will go into production in the foreseeable future. Critics say the project is a threat to the Taku River commercial salmon fishery, worth $2.7 million a year to Alaskans. In the Canadian section of the river, upstream from Juneau, 16 Canadian fish-boats (8 native and 8 non-native) operate throughout the commercial openings each year. The fishery alone should play an important part in decision making.
The BC government approved the project in 1998. The Tlingit First Nation asked for a judicial review of the approval decision in 1999. The BC Supreme Court quashed the government's approval of the project, ruling that the environmental assessment failed to fulfil the fiduciary obligation of the Crown to protect the rights of minorities. It further ordered BC's Environmental Assessment Office to "meaningfully address" Tlingit concerns.
There have been appeals and cross appeals in the Supreme Court and Appeals Court of BC. Another case is pending in the Supreme Court of Canada. The Tlingit First Nation is endeavouring to reach a settlement of land claims before a final decision compromises its interests. The recertification of the mine in December 2002 by Stan Hagen, Minister of Sustainable Resource Management, and Richard Neufeld, BC Minister of Energy and Mines, appears a blatant disregard for the courts of BC and Canada.
John Ward, spokesman for the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, is concerned that the Tlingit's situation is part of a larger game involving treaty negotiations. "I get the sense that this mine is a small pawn in the big picture of playing some dirty pool with us," Ward said.
British Columbia is well known for its vast and unpopulated forest-lands. But there are very few areas that haven't been crisscrossed with logging roads, clear-cut from valley bottom to alpine, or scarred from mineral extraction. Many of the mines are worked out, or gone bankrupt and abandoned. Many, perhaps most of the mines, are left with huge amounts of mine tailings, leaching acid, heavy metals and other pollutants to their surrounding watersheds, a detriment to the health of fish, wildlife and human populations for generations to come.
The forests will regrow, for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations, if we end the practice of clear-cutting before all the topsoil washes away down the rivers to the continental shelf.
Cleaning up the residual waste from mining is a much more difficult and serious problem. There are mines in Europe, a legacy left by the ancient Romans, that are still to this day, polluting the watersheds in which they lie.
Leaving all other issues aside, the Tulsequah Chief mine is probably financially unviable, especially for BC taxpayers. The construction and maintenance of the new road, and extensive upgrading of existing roads to accommodate, every day, 24 heavy, ore carrying trucks, will likely be borne by tax dollars. The 840 km return trip from Tulsequah to Skagway can take 15-to-20 hours, terrain and weather conditions considered. Trucking will be an expensive item. Market glut and uncertainty in metals prices could result in heavy subsidies to the continued operation.
It's questionable if the mining industry, overall, puts back into the public purse as much as it takes out.
Cynics may see the Tulsequah Chief project as just another example of an incestuous relationship that exists between the buccaneers of the mining industry and those of government.
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[From WS February/March 2003]