4 Greater Chilkat Watershed Atlas Archives

Mapping collaboration

This section of Places>Biogeographic provinces is somewhat unconventional in that it does not adhere precisely to province boundaries as defined in 2007 by Audubon/TNC. Rather, it reflects an exciting collaboration between Discovery Southeast and residents of what we define as the Greater Chilkat Watershed.

At the northern tip of Southeast Alaska’s inland waterway, 5 silt-laden transboundary rivers—fanned like fingers of a giant hand—converge into a fertile, glacier-fed ‘palm:’ Jilḵáat, cache (Chilkat River valley). Near the estuary, the port of Deishú, trail’s end (Haines) greets raincountry travelers bound for drier, boreal realms in Canada and interior Alaska. Here is one of the continent’s great ecotones—a zone of transition, connectivity, genetic mixing, and commerce.

Audubon-TNC’s Chilkat biogegraphic province in pink. Ḵwáan boundaries green-outlined. Alaska-British-Columbia border dashed., in recognition of its permeability and irrelevance to indigenous cultures and fish&wildlife movements. Greater Chilkat Watershed—outlined in red—intersects all but excludes portions of each.

In early winter, 2019, I was invited by coalition of organizations based in the Greater Chilkat to compile a biogeographic and cultural atlas for this region. The map below shows its boundaries. Unlike the other mainland Biogeographic Provinces, which are clipped to the AK-BC border, this one extends inland to the heads of Canadian tributaries feeding ultimately into Chilkat River.

As of midsummer, 2024, Greater Chilkat Watershed: A living atlas stands at 157 pages, and counting Introductory pages can be downloaded here. Check out the table of contents: anything there that you’d like to preview, write, or edit? Let me know—I’m happy to share drafts.

Our GCW atlas is organized by topic, in the traditional sequence of geology > habitats > fish&wildife > culture. In early 2021, we decided to create a companion atlas looking more closely at 18 subregions of the GCW.

GCW: Featured landscapes Maps and resources specific to these featured areas are being added (summer 2021) to new sub-category pages. Stay tuned as we build these mini-atlases. . .

Greater Chilkat Watershed lies in a sudden rainshadow, to the north and west of Glacier Bay National Park. Canadian tributaries add 865 square miles to the 1,025 square miles of the Alaskan part of this basin, thus comprising 46% of GCW’s total 1,890 square miles.

Northeast along BC-AK border (the mowed swath on right) at Pleasant Camp. Taken in 2005 during a visit with naturalist Kathy Hocker to retake a ~1940s photo of Jarvis Glacier.

Because “atlas,” in its printed form, might conjure something static or ‘finished,’ we call this evolving effort a living atlas. Our intent is that this collection of maps and stories continues to grow, beyond conclusion of any one contract or funding cycle. In its online form—here on JuneauNature—the atlas is interactive. It coordinates and solicits contributions from the Chilkat Valley community—serving to identify gaps and unknowns as well as sharing what we do know.

As our project evolves, various branches of the mapping and story-telling effort will be listed below as linked content-pages, also accessible from Lynn Canal Conservation’s website.

Your feedback is appreciated as we develop this ‘living atlas.’ Among the early, draft products will be geopdfs for navigation within the Greater Chilkat Watershed. These are especially useful in the often-off-line GCW, because they give your position, track, photopoints, etc. using only the GPS on your device. From my constantly updating ArcGIS project, it’s easy for me to crank out a custom, high-res geopdf for any subregion or subject matter. Just let me know what you need!

Downloadable geopdfs for the Greater Chilkat: Lingít placenames Bedrock geology More detailed geopdfs can be downloaded for places in the Featured landscapes section.

Journal for July, 2019 visit: From 20190706 to 08, when my sister Tina was visiting from Mexico, we ferried to Haines for a first meeting and exploration with folks from Lynn Canal Conservation. My 61-page journal is here. It focuses on the Little Salmon wetlands, and Nánde Héeni Yei Kéich Yé, sits in water facing north (Three Guardsmen pass)