It is believed that the Gitanyow people from British Columbia has long relied on two salmon streams that are productive that are known as the Hanna Tintina creeks that flow into the Nass watershed.
In 2016 the report of a tribal fisheries committee found that salmon were altering their habits of spawning.
Its style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”We found out that Strohn Creek, known as Xsik’alaa’n in our language actually quite efficient,” said Naxginkw Tara Marsden the Sustainability Director of Gitanyow’s Chiefs of Hereditary. “Over 40 percent of the spawners were in the creek, which in the past was not a major producer. .”
The creek in the vicinity had not been a place for salmon to breed since the past 100 years the majority of it was surrounded by glaciers.
However, climate change is swiftly altering the landscapes of the western part of Canada along with Southeast Alaska. Due to warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels most of the glaciers in the region could disappear before the end of this century.
After they leave, the fish will be leaving many miles brand-new salmon streams. However, according to an article released in Science in November of last year, these streams could be at risk from resource extraction before fish have even arrived.
At the time that salmon were found in Xsik’alaa’n mining firms had staked claims on the hills surrounding. The study also shows that the majority of the new salmon habitat is located near the mining hotspot, where hundreds of claims have been staked on freshly melting land.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”So we’re faced with an option to choose how we manage these nascent ecosystems” stated Jonathan Moore who is a researcher from Simon Fraser University who led the study. “Are we planning to preserve these ecosystems to ensure future habitat for salmon? Or will they be mined? ?”
Fraser, Marsden and collaborators from the University of Montana and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation The team compared maps of retreating glaciers and potential salmon habitats in the transboundary zone in Alaska as well as Canada in opposition to mining claim within a 3 mile distance.
From 114 watersheds they found 25 watersheds in which half of the future habitat for salmon was in conflict with claims for mining and 17 watersheds that had greater than 90% overlap. That’s greater than one-third salmon habitat overlaps with mining claim.
This is due to the fact that many glaciers that melt quickly in the region are in that “Golden Triangle” an area of high-quality mining in the western Stikine region. Like the name suggests, most mining activity is centered on gold.
The modern-day gold rush is enabled through The Mineral Tenure Act, a colonial mining law that permits mining companies to acquire the right to explore and development without consultation and with a small cost.
In this legislation mining companies are allowed to claim land over glaciers that are frozen, as well as on not ceded First Nations land.
If a mining claim grows into a permanent mine, it is subject to a variety of environmental assessments and regulations in the Mineral Tenure Act. However, these environmental laws don’t require the examination of climate change or the future of habitat.
It’s a matter of style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”That’s not a surprise considering how quickly change is happening in the global landscape and how difficult it is to alter the policy,” Moore said. “But I believe there’s a pressing need for environmental laws to consider the future and consider whether they’re protecting the future of habitats not just existing habitats. .”
Based on an upcoming decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia The Mineral Tenure Act violates Indigenous Constitutional rights to stewardship as well.
It’s a style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”The problem that’s set up when mining companies claim their land, is that they’re then due some thing,” Marsden said. “We’ve been stewards of these land for tens of hundreds of thousands of years and we’re never being owed anything. .”
In accordance with the court’s decision the mining claims staking in the Mineral Tenure Act undermine the Canadian government’s obligation of consulting with Tribal nations prior to approving environmental permits. The province has 18 months to amend the Act.
Tribal governments, such as that of Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs are hoping that provincial governments will also follow their example. Within Gitanyow territories, the mining the area around the Hanna Tintina creeks was banned in the Gitanyow Lax’yip Land Use Plan in 2012.
In 2021, they expanded similar protections for Xsik’alaa’n Strohn Creek through the declaration of the Wilp Wii Litsxw Meziadin Indigenous Protected Area.
While Tribal governments have been leading in this regard however, the study suggests that it’s feasible for federal and provincial governments to create proactive protections, too. The summer of 2023 the U.S. Forest Service established the mining ban in areas that surround the shrinking Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.
