How the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs are Conserving Salmon
Photography credit: Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs
The BC Conservation Fund is investing in this project as one of many such initiatives that protect biodiversity, advance conservation across the province, and promote First Nations leadership and governance in stewardship.
“Salmon is the backbone of our culture,” Tara Marsden shares as an impactful summary of a deep and long relationship with salmon. Tara is a member of Gitanyow First Nations, and the Gitanyow Hereditary Chief’s Wilp Sustainability Director.
“Our people harvest salmon annually and have for hundreds and thousands of years,” Tara says. “In the Meziadin, specifically, we have a harvest for food fish of around 10,000 Sockeye per year.”
“[Salmon] supports not only our people, but many of our relatives from other Gitxsan communities, other Nisga’a communities, and sometimes in communities as far east as the Fraser Lake area and the Carrier Sekani communities.”
“When they have poor returns from the Fraser they’ll come get fish, food, from Meziadin.”
Photography credit: Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs
Salmon is a keystone species, meaning they are necessary for their ecosystems’ health, supporting other species with their nutrients.1 130+ species, including humans, are being supported by salmon in some way.2 Beyond this, commercial and recreational salmon fisheries have played a foundational role in the cultural identity of BC, providing food and jobs as well as enjoyment through recreation, to visitors and locals alike.
Unfortunately, salmon are a species under pressure. Due to climate change, and 150 years of development and intensive fisheries, the pressure on salmon has been significant. About half of Pacific Salmon are in various state of decline.3
Tara mentions that one stream in the Meziadin Watershed went from 20,000 spawners returning annually to as low as 100.
“While our sockeye runs are doing better than ten years ago, thanks to decreasing coastal fisheries, our chinook have been on the decline for over a decade,” Tara states. “This year Chinook runs to Meziadin are less than 20% of historical averages.”
To combat this trend and in recognition of Salmon’s cultural importance, the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs are leading the Meziadin Watershed Salmon Habitat Conservation Plan and working with the Province of BC to reach a government-to-government conservation agreement.
Photography credit: Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs
47,000 hectares of the Meziadin watershed are proposed for conservation. This area adjoins the Meziadin Lake Class A Park and Hanna-Tintina Conservancy to the east. It aims to expand these conservation designations for salmon habitat to the rest of the Meziadin Watershed, including Strohn Creek, Surprise Creek, other tributaries of the lake and the lakeshore.
“With climate change, our snowpack-fed tributaries are suffering, but our glacier-fed ones are quite productive. Protecting climate-induced habitat is critical to ensure biodiversity of salmon runs in the Nass Watershed,” Tara explains.
“This specific area and the target of expanding the conservancy began in around 2017 but the Hanna-Tintina conservancy itself, which protects part of the Meziadin watershed, was established in 2012 through the Gitanyow Lax’yip Land Use Plan.”
“We’ve always stewarded our territory,” Tara says. “It doesn't just start, you know, one day out of nowhere…it starts from a long history of trying to protect our territories and the resources within them.”
Sources:
3. https://stateofsalmon.psf.ca/pdf/stateofsalmon-2024report.pdf?v=1.13.1
