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.
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The rushing, debris-filled water has already claimed at least one structure, a historic cabin in Farwell Canyon.
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