Pristine: “not spoiled, corrupted, or polluted” according to the dictionary. Many use this term to describe the Chilkat Valley. According to Derek Poinsette, executive director of the Takshanuk Watershed Council, the Chilkat watershed is far from pristine. He stated in the July 20 edition of CVN that the “Chilkat is the most developed of the five large Southeast Alaska watersheds, and after a century of industrial exploitation – including large-scale placer mining, clear-cut logging, and road building — it remains the top salmon-producer.”
Let’s take care of this watershed, and as we chart a path to the future through the Haines Borough Comprehensive Plan, we need to balance the resource development in this watershed — whether this is mining, logging, tourism or fishing.
Richard Clement