Not to be confused with the Taku Arm of Tagish Lake

Tagish Lake

Tagish Lake is a lake in the Yukon Territory and northern British Columbia, Canada. The lake is more than long and about 2 km wide.It has two arms, the Taku Arm in the east which is very long and mostly in British Columbia and Windy Arm in the west, mostly in the Yukon. The Klondike Highway runs...

The Taku River is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 running from British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, to the northwestern coast of North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, at Juneau, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. Its mouth coincides with the Alaska-British Columbia border. The river basin spreads across 27500 square kilometres (10,617.8 sq mi).

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Taku Indians controlled the trade routes on the river and compelled natives of the Interior

British Columbia Interior

The British Columbia Interior or BC Interior or Interior of British Columbia, usually referred to only as the Interior, is one of the three main regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the other two being the Lower Mainland, which comprises the overlapping areas of Greater Vancouver...

 to use them as middle-men, instead of allowing trade directly with white settlers.

The Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 established a trading post called Fort Durham

Fort Durham

Fort Durham, also known as Fort Taku, Taku, Taco, and Tacouw and in legal terms as AHRS Site JUN 036 is an archaeological site near Taku Harbor, Alaska, within the limits of Juneau City and Borough...

, also known as Fort Taku, near the mouth of the Taku River in the early 1840s to take advantage of the natural trade route. However, by 1843, Fort Durham had been abandoned as unprofitable.

Although a major river, the Taku's name does not extend to its headwaters. Its name begins at the confluence of the Inklin

Inklin River

The Inklin River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows northwest into the head of the Taku River, which is formed by the convergence of the Inklin with the Nakina River, which flows southwest to meet it at the uninhabited locality of Inklin, which is located at the...

 and Nakina River

Nakina River

The Nakina River is a river located in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, rising southeast of Atlin Lake and flowing generally Southeast to its confluence with the Inklin River at the locality of Inklin, where the two rivers combine to form the commencement of the Taku River.A major tributary...

s, which is the location of the tiny community of Inklin

Inklin, British Columbia

Inklin is a locality situated at the confluence of the Inklin and Nakina Rivers in far northwestern British Columbia, Canada, which is the commencement of the Taku River....

. The Inklin's name also only extends upstream to the confluence of the Nahlin

Nahlin River

The Nahlin River is a river in far northwestern British Columbia, Canada, flowing northwest to meet the Sheslay River, forming there the commencement of the Inklin River, the main southeast fork of the Taku....

 and Sheslay River

Sheslay River

The Sheslay River is a river in far northwestern British Columbia in the southeast portion of the basin of the Taku River. The river is 85 km in length from the confluence of the Hackett River to the junction of the Nahlin River, which is the commencement of the Inklin River, the main SE...

s, which the Nakina's main tributaries are the Sloko and Silver Salmon Rivers.

One account of its name is that "Taku" is the Tlingit language

Tlingit language

The Tlingit language ) is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada. It is a branch of the Na-Dené language family. Tlingit is very endangered, with fewer than 140 native speakers still living, all of whom are bilingual or near-bilingual in English...

 word for "salmon" but the Taku Tlingit

Taku people

The Taku are an Alaskan Native people, a ḵwáan or geographic subdivision of the Tlingit, known in their own language as the Tʼaaḵu Ḵwáan or "Geese Flood Upriver Tribe"...

 name for themselves T'aaku Kwáan translates as "Geese Flood Upriver Tribe"". There are also two kwaans of the Tlingit people inland in British Columbia, the Áa Tlein Kwáan ("Big Lake Tribe", today organized as the Taku River Tlingit First Nation

Taku River Tlingit First Nation

The Taku River Tlingit First Nation are the band government of the Inland Tlinkit in far northern British Columbia, Canada and also in Yukon. They comprise two ḵwaan of the Tlingit people, who are otherwise coastal, the Áa Tlein Ḵwáan of the Atlin Lake area and the Deisleen Ḵwáan of Teslin Lake,...

) and the Deisleen Kwáan ("Big Sinew Tribe", today organized as the Teslin Tlingit Council

Teslin Tlingit Council

The Teslin Tlingit Council is a First Nation government in the central Yukon in Canada, located in Teslin, Yukon along the Alaska Highway and Teslin Lake. The language originally spoken by the Teslin is Tlingit...

); the territory of the former includes those areas of the Taku basin in British Columbia.

Tributaries

In addition to the Inklin and Nakina Rivers, from which it is formed, other tributaries of the Taku proper include the Tulsequah River

Tulsequah River

The Tulsequah River, formerly the Talsekwe River, is a tributary of the Taku River in northwestern British Columbia, located south of the Atlin District and inland from Juneau, Alaska...

.

Economic value

The Taku River is an important contributor to the economies of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, especially for its commercial, sport and personal-use fisheries. A detailed report released in 2004 by the McDowell Group notes $5.4 million in total U.S. commercial harvest and processing output, including 80 jobs and $1.4 million in labor income. British Columbia added over $750,000 more.
Other activities, including commercial air, guided river excursions, hunting and property taxes added still more to the general regional economy. the report mentioned above estimated "the annual economic impact from all actiities on the Taku River to be $26.7 million," most of it, about $18 million, from commercial air activity directly related to tourism.

The Taku is the Southeast Alaska's top salmon-producing river. Data from the Alaska Department of Fish & Game notes that nearly 2 million wild salmon return to the river annually, including up to 100,000 Chinook salmon

Chinook salmon

The Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, is the largest species in the pacific salmon family. Other commonly used names for the species include King salmon, Quinnat salmon, Spring salmon and Tyee salmon...

 (king salmon), 350,000 sockeye salmon

Sockeye salmon

Sockeye salmon , also called red salmon or blueback salmon in the USA, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it...

 (red salmon) and 400,000 coho salmon

Coho salmon

The Coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch, is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". It is the state animal of Chiba, Japan.-Description:...

 (silver salmon), 50,000 chum salmon

Chum salmon

The chum salmon, Oncorhynchus keta, is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is a Pacific salmon, and may also be known as dog salmon or Keta salmon, and is often marketed under the name Silverbrite salmon...

(dog salmon), and 1 million pink salmon

Pink salmon

Pink salmon or humpback salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is the smallest and most abundant of the Pacific salmon.- Appearance :...

 (humpy salmon). Beyond its bounty of salmon, the Taku is home to eight other fish species, including steelhead, bull trout, Dolly Varden char, rainbow trout, lake trout, arctic grayling, whitefish and Southeast Alaska's largest population of cutthroat trout. In addition, hooligans (eulachon

Eulachon

The eulachon, also oolichan, hooligan, ooligan, or candlefish, is a small anadromous ocean fish, Thaleichthys pacificus, a smelt found along the Pacific coast of North America from northern California to Alaska....

), crab

Crab

True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...

, shrimp

Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...

 and halibut

Halibut

Halibut is a flatfish, genus Hippoglossus, from the family of the right-eye flounders . Other flatfish are also called halibut. The name is derived from haly and butt , for its popularity on Catholic holy days...

 are harvested at or near the river's mouth. That marine wealth supports major sport, commercial and tribal fisheries in Alaska and British Columbia.

Flooding history

Periodically, the Taku River reaches flood stage (43 ft) or above. Records of the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction ServiceAdvanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS), a branch of the National Weather Service

National Weather Service

The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...

, show that in the last two decades the river crested above 43 feet (13.1 m) six times. The highest level reached in that period was 45.07 feet (13.7 m) on June 25, 2004. As of Aug. 12, 2009, the highest registered level for 2009 occurred on July 24 when the river crested at 43.17 feet (13.2 m). More information is available at the AHPS website. Also see * http://takuriver.com/takuriverfloods.htm

Habitat protection efforts

Past mining activity and the potential for future mining on the Canadian side of the border led the State of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 to take recent habitat protection steps. In January 2009, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources

Alaska Department of Natural Resources

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is a department within the government of Alaska. The Department of Natural Resources develops, conserves and enhances natural resources for present and future Alaskans....

' Division of Coastal and Ocean Management approved a request from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of Alaska. The Department of Fish and Game manages Alaska's fish, game, and aquatic plant resources.-History:...

 to designated the entire U.S. portion of the Taku River as "important habitat," a designation that put the stretch of river within the purview of protective provisions in Alaska law that require those applying for certain river use permits "avoid, minimize, or mitigate significant adverse impacts to the special productivity of the habitat." In February, the director of the division rescinded the designation for a portion of the U.S. river below the Canadian border. The important habitat designation remains in place, however, for a 16 miles (25.7 km) section beginning at the river's mouth near Juneau, Alaska.. Several organizations are working to win further habitat conservation

Habitat conservation

Habitat conservation is a land management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore, habitat areas for wild plants and animals, especially conservation reliant species, and prevent their extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range...

 protections for the river, including Rivers Without Borders

Rivers Without Borders

Rivers Without Borders, a nonprofit organization fiscally sponsored by the Tides Center and Tides Canada Initiatives, promotes a watershed-based conservation vision for the Transboundary Watershed Region of Southeast Alaska and northwest British Columbia. Rivers Without Borders' mission is to...

 and the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

See also

• List of Alaska rivers
• List of British Columbia rivers
• Stikine Territory
  Stikine Territory
  The Stickeen Territories , also colloquially rendered as Stickeen Territory, Stikine Territory, and Stikeen Territory, was a territory of British North America whose brief existence began July 19, 1862, and concluded July of the following year. The region was split from the North-Western...
  
  
• Taku, British Columbia
  Taku, British Columbia
  Taku, also known as Taku Landing, is a locality on Graham Inlet of the Taku Arm of Tagish Lake in the Atlin District of far northwestern British Columbia, Canada...
  
  
• Rivers Without Borders
  Rivers Without Borders
  Rivers Without Borders, a nonprofit organization fiscally sponsored by the Tides Center and Tides Canada Initiatives, promotes a watershed-based conservation vision for the Transboundary Watershed Region of Southeast Alaska and northwest British Columbia. Rivers Without Borders' mission is to...
  
  
• http://www.TakuRiver.com

News

• Juneau Empire, (June 18, 2009) opinion, My Turn: "Palin should seize Taku opportunity"
• Juneau Empire, ( July 12, 2009) story: "Palin urges Canadians to address mine's acid drainage"
• Juneau Empire, (July 19, 2009) story: "Bridging the gap: Conservation and commercial fishing"
• Juneua empire, (July 24, 2009) story: "Taku River flooding could near record"
• The Globe Mail, (July 28, 2009) Column: "Palin's parting words to B.C.: 'Don't spill baby, don't spill"
• Yukon News, July 31, 2009, story: "Redcorp's bankruptcy threatens salmon-rich Taku"
• Juneau Empire, (Aug. 17, 2009) story: "Spawning grounds stock derby catch: State biologists collect salmon data with fish wheels, spaghetti tags"
• Juneau Empire, (Aug. 31, 2009) opinion, Letter: "Parnell should make Taku River a priority"
• http://takuriver.com/rivernews.htm