B.C. First Nations are initiating an emergency salmon task force to investigate the impact on the sockeye salmon due to last week’s Chilcotin River landslide.
“Chilcotin Rivers are kind of our identity,” Nits’ilʔin (Chief) Francis Laceese, Tl’esqox said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“Same with the salmon, you know, that’s basically who we are. That’s our biggest food source.”
Tŝilhqot’in National Government (TNG) is calling on all levels of government, downstream First Nations, the Pacific Salmon Commission, and other nations and states, especially Alaskan fisheries, to take all precautionary measures possible to conserve Tŝilhqot’in territory-bound salmon, and to immediately cease from fisheries that may impact these stocks, until the impacts from the landslide and breach are fully understood.
A massive landslide came down last Wednesday, damming the Chilcotin River, which leads into the Fraser River.
The rushing, debris-filled water has already claimed at least one structure, a historic cabin in Farwell Canyon.
Now, First Nations will meet to discuss the impact on the sockeye salmon run to the Chilko Lake spawning grounds, in the first year of a four-year cycle.
In 2019, the run was severely impacted by the Big Bar slide along the Fraser River.
“Maybe 15 to 20 per cent got through four years ago to the spawning grounds and this run right now is the result of that 15 to 20 per cent,” Nits’ilʔin (Chief) Joe Alphonse, Tribal Chair, said at the conference on Tuesday.
“Now we don’t know how much of that is actually going to get through. There may be some but it’s going to be very, very challenging.”
The sockeye run is just days away from entering the Chilcotin River.
B.C.’s Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, Bowinn Ma, said on Tuesday that salmon is incredibly important to B.C. communities and the ecosystem.
“Any kind of impact to waterways that has the potential to harm salmon is of utmost concern to us,” she said.
“Of course, over the last several days, our priority has been on keeping people safe. But we have many other important key factors that we need to work together on this.”
James Mack, with the Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship, said they need to wait until the areas are stable for people to get in and examine what has happened to the salmon.
“The majority of adult Chinook should be through,” he said. “And so what we’re really focused on is the next return of sockeye, which we normally see the third week of August.”