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Klinaklini
River
Take some of British Columbia's highest
mountains, largest icefields, bluest
lakes, loveliest meadows, richest wetlands,
and most luxurious forests. Squeeze
through an impossibly narrow canyon,
and release into a long, deep coastal
fjord. Mix in mountain goats, big horn
sheep, bald eagles, grizzly bears, black
bears, wolves, cougars, wolverines,
weasels, coyote and lynx. Feed it all
with salmon, and the web of life that
springs from the Pacific's fundamental
fish. At just 195 kilometres
in length, with a watershed of 5,780
square kilometres, the Klinaklini
River packs a gigantic wallop of biodiversity
and ecological variation. From its beginnings
in a small lake in the high, dry Chilcotin
Plateau, through its descent past the
Silverthrone glaciers and soaring Mount
Waddington, to its saltwater meeting
with the Knight Inlet waterway, the
Klinaklini crosses not only the Coast
Mountains, but a cascade of landscapes
and eco-regions. It is a river known
mostly by its ends - by the Kwakwaka'wakw
Nation and eco-tourists of its coastal
reaches and by the Tsilhqot'in Nation,
ranchers, and rugged adventurers of
its Chilcotin headwaters. Even in the
21st century, the Klinaklini's middle
remains wild and mysterious; except
for a handful of heli-rafters and heli-fishers,
few people have laid eyes on the river's
inner sanctum. Thanks to landmark forestry
agreements that have put an end to logging
of its verdant valley, there's a good
chance that the Klinaklini's river refuge
will remain. |
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