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Climate change is melting glaciers and creating new salmon habitat in the Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers — but being staked for gold mining
Climate change is melting glaciers and creating new salmon habitat in the Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers — but being staked for gold mining

Beneath the glaciers of northwestern British Columbia and Southeast Alaska is wild salmon habitat in the making. Atop those glaciers, however, are ice roads, mining claims, and active drills.

A freshwater lake recently formed by glacier retreat. Location is in the Tulsequah subwatershed within the Taku watershed, BC, Canada. Photo by Chris Sergeant

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Featured SalmonState Column

Hunting for fish in Alaska’s steelhead bearing rivers and streams
Mary Catharine Martin Mary Catharine Martin

Hunting for fish in Alaska’s steelhead bearing rivers and streams

For most people, steelhead — sea-run rainbow trout — are “the fish of 10,000 casts.” To catch them, you stand waist-deep in a spring-melt river, growing numb with cold as you cast… and cast… and cast.

Trout Unlimited sportfish outreach coordinator and Bear Creek Outfitter fishing guide Mark Heironymus says it doesn’t have to be that way. A better word than “fishing” for steelhead, he said, is “hunting.” You might go hours between casts, but once you line everything up right, you get your fish.

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