The Northern Transboundary Region contains rugged, remote rivers that wind from the interior plateaus of northern British Columbia and the Yukon to the coastal seas of southeast Alaska, providing diverse habitats that support all six species of Pacific salmon.

Salmon have been a cornerstone of human existence in the Northern Transboundary Region for thousands of years. However, recent declines across species and rivers have raised concerns about their continued ability to provide benefits to salmon-dependent communities and the broader ecosystems they are part of. 

These conservation concerns are not limited to the Northern Transboundary Region, but the decline of salmon here is noteworthy given that the Region has been hailed a future salmon stronghold. Climate change is altering salmon watersheds at a rapid pace throughout North America, shrinking the range of thermally suitable habitat. Despite the fact that northern regions are warming faster than the national average, the large glaciers and relatively cool climate of the Northern Transboundary will likely continue to provide ample salmon habitat into the future — with some new habitat even being created as glaciers recede. However, maintaining healthy, abundant salmon in the face of rapid environmental changes in the Region requires diverse, distributed populations that lower the risk of extirpation and provide the ingredients for salmon to adapt. 

Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information on the status and trends of biodiverse groups of salmon, called Conservation Units, limiting our ability to conserve the diversity that confers resilience to salmon. To date, most information on salmon in the Northern Transboundary Region has focused on coarse-scale assessments of economically important species (Chinook, coho, and sockeye) in three major river basins — the Alsek, Taku, and Stikine. 

This report aims to fill the gap in understanding the status of salmon Conservation Units and their freshwater habitats in the Northern Transboundary Region. A lack of data at the appropriate scale hindered our ability to assess biological status for 36 of the 44 Conservation Units in the Region. For the eight Conservation Units that we could assess — one Chinook and seven lake-type sockeye — biological status outcomes were split among “poor” (n=2), “fair” (n=2), and “good” (n=3). These variable status outcomes suggest that there is a diversity of patterns in abundance among Conservation Units — even within a river basin — that likely buffer against variability in the aggregate stocks. Habitat assessments revealed relatively low threat of degradation of salmon habitats across different pressures, although localized threats from wildfires and mining were evident and highlight the potential for these pressures to threaten salmon habitat in the future. 

In light of these findings, we provide recommendations to improve the quality and availability of data that would enable a more comprehensive assessment of Conservation Units and their habitats. Improved understanding of the status of biodiversity within salmon species of the Region is critical to effectively manage for resilience and to ensure that this Region can remain a salmon stronghold for future generations.