The Tuya River is a major

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

Stikine River The Stikine River is a major river in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States. It drains a large, remote upland area known as the Stikine Country east of the Coast Mountains. Flowing west and south f ...

in northwest part of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. From its source at High Tuya Lake in

Tuya Mountains Provincial Park Tuya Mountains Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, protecting the Tuya Range, a volcanic region at the head of the Tuya River. The park is located on the north side of Tuya Lake. The park is named for nearby Tuya ...

just south of Ash Mountain, the highest peak of the

Tuya Range The Tuya Range is a mountain range in the Stikine Ranges of the Cassiar Mountains in the far north of the Canadian province of British Columbia, near its border with the Yukon, Yukon Territory and to the southwest of Watson Lake, Yukon, which is ...

, the Tuya River flows south about Length measured using BCGNIS coordinates, topographic maps, an
Toporama
/ref> to meet the Stikine River in the

Grand Canyon of the Stikine The Grand Canyon of the Stikine is a stretch of the Stikine River in northern British Columbia, Canada. It has been compared to the Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon of the Colorado. The canyon is home to a large population of mountain goats and other w ...

. The Tuya River's main tributary is the

Little Tuya River The Little Tuya River is a tributary of the Tuya River in northwest part of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It flows generally south and east about Length measured using BCGNIS coordinates, topographic maps, anToporama/ref> to join the Tu ...

. The Tuya River divides the

Tanzilla Plateau The Tanzilla Plateau is a plateau in the Stikine Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is a sub-plateau of the Stikine Plateau and is located east of the Tuya River, north of the Stikine River and surrounding Dease Lak ...

on the east from the

Kawdy Plateau The Kawdy Plateau is a plateau in northern British Columbia, Canada, located between the Nahlin and Tuya Rivers. It includes the granitic Atsutla Range and Nazcha Hills and the volcanic Kawdy Mountain. See also *List of plateaus in British Co ...

, to the northwest, and the

Nahlin Plateau The Nahlin Plateau is a plateau in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located between the Sheslay River and Tuya River on the west and east and the Nahlin River and the Stikine River to the north and south. It is a subplateau of the Stikine Pl ...

, to the southwest. All three are considered sub-plateaus of the

Stikine Plateau The Stikine Plateau is a plateau in northern British Columbia, Canada. It lies between the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains on the west and southwest and the Cassiar Mountains along its northeast, and between the Skeena Mountains on its sout ...

. The Tuya River's watershed covers , and its mean annual discharge is estimated at . The mouth of the Tuya River is located about northeast of

Telegraph Creek Telegraph Creek is a small community located off Highway 37 in northern British Columbia at the confluence of the Stikine River and Telegraph Creek. The only permanent settlement on the Stikine River, it is home to approximately 250 members of Tah ...

, British Columbia, about southwest of

Dease Lake Dease Lake is a small community located in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is located a few hours south of the Yukon border on Stewart–Cassiar Highway (Highway 37) at the south end of the lake o ...

, British Columbia, and about east of

Juneau, Alaska The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

. The Tuya River's watershed's

land cover Land cover is the physical material at the surface of Earth. Land covers include grass, asphalt, trees, bare ground, water, etc. Earth cover is the expression used by ecologist Frederick Edward Clements that has its closest modern equivalent being ...

is classified as 35.7%

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

, 31.4%

conifer forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

, 14.0%

mixed forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These for ...

, 7.2%

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

, and small amounts of other cover. A

tuya A tuya is a flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. They are rare worldwide, being confined to regions which were covered by glaciers and had active volcanism during the same period. As lava ...

is a geologic term for a flat-topped, steep-sided

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

formed when

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

erupts through a thick

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at Las ...

. The geologic term comes from

Tuya Butte Tuya Butte is a tuya in the Tuya Range of north-central British Columbia, Canada. It is a bit less isolated from other ranges than neighbouring Mount Josephine. Some of the other volcanoes in the area include South Tuya, Ash Mountain, and Math ...

, which was named in association with

Tuya Lake Tuya Lake, located in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, presumably derives its name from the presence of nearby steep-sided, flat-topped volcanoes, known as tuyas. The lake is situated just south of Tuya Butte at a latitude of about 59 degre ...

. The term may come the

Tahltan language Tahltan, Tāłtān, also called Tałtan ẕāke ("Tahltan people language"), dah dẕāhge ("our language") or didene keh ("this people’s way") is a poorly documented Northern Athabaskan language historically spoken by the Tahltan people (also ...

. The Tuya River is in the traditional territory of the

Tahltan First Nation The Tahltan First Nation, also known as the Tahltan Indian Band, is a band government of the Tahltan people. Their main community and reserves are located at Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. Their language is the Tahltan language, which is an ...

, of the

Tahltan The Tahltan or Nahani are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, and Iskut. The Tahltan constitute the fourth division of the ''Nahane' ...

people, the

Kaska Dena The Kaska or Kaska Dena are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living mainly in northern British Columbia and the southeastern Yukon in Canada. The Kaska language, originally spoken by the Kaska, is an Athabas ...

First Nation, and the Teslin Tlingit First Nation.

Geography

The Tuya River originates at High Tuya Lake in Tuya Mountains Provincial Park, just south of Ash Mountain, the highest peak of the Tuya Range. It flows south to

, southeast of

and east of Mount Josephine. The tributary Butte Creek, flowing south from Butte Lake in Tuya Mountains Provincial Park, empties into Tuya Lake. From the southern end of Tuya Lake the Tuya River continues south. It is joined by Josephine Creek and numerous unnamed tributaries. Continuing south the Tuya River flows east of Tachilta Lakes, collecting more tributaries including Cody Creek, Tachilta Creek, Mckessock Creek, and Ross Creek. A few kilometres west of Cariboo Meadows the Tuya River is joined by its main tributary, the

. As the river nears the Stikine River it is joined by Classy Creek, then flows under Telegraph Creek Road. The Tuya River empties into the Stikine River near Days Ranch, the mouth of the Klastline River, and the Tahltan

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." Ind ...

of " Tahltan 10", of the

Geology

Coal has been found in rocks exposed in the drainage of the Tuya River and its tributaries the

and Mansfield Creek, between the communities of

and

in northwestern BC. This coal field is called the Tuya River Coal Basin. The coal was first discovered in 1904, but the main exploration of its economic potential occurred in the late 1970s to 1990s by

PetroCanada Petro-Canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, with Suncor shareholders rec ...

.Ryan, B.D. 1991. Geology and Potential Coal and Coalbed Methane Resource of the Tuya River Coal Basin; in Geological Fieldwork 1990, B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, Paper 1991-1, pp. 419-427.

Natural history

The Tuya River drainage provides very high quality salmon spawning habitat, but fish passage is blocked by several barriers including an waterfall located about above the mouth of the Tuya and another significant barrier about upriver. In addition, a 2006 landslide created a barrier to fish passage near the mouth of the Tuya River.

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

spawn in the lowermost portion of the river, below the blockage. In the 1950s the Alaska Department of Fish and Game assessed the Tuya River as having the highest level of potential salmon spawning habitat of any transboundary river, possibly capable of supporting more

sockeye salmon The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...

than the entire Stikine River. The

Pacific Salmon Commission The Pacific Salmon Commission is a regulatory body run jointly by the Canadian and United States governments. Its mandate is to protect stocks of the five species of Pacific salmon. Its precursor was the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Comm ...

, a joint US-Canada transboundary river salmon protection regulatory body, has made the Tuya River a major component of its efforts to improve fish stocks in the Stikine River watershed. In 2008 explosives were used to blast through the fish barrier created by the 2006 landslide. Field studies in 2009 indicated that the landslide barrier had been successfully breached. Salmonid species found in the Tuya River in 2009 included Chinook salmon, sockeye salmon,

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientific species name i ...

pink salmon Pink salmon or humpback salmon (''Oncorhynchus gorbuscha'') is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is the smallest and most abundant of the Pacific salmon. The scientific species name is based on the Russian common name for ...

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

, and

bull trout The bull trout (''Salvelinus confluentus'') is a char of the family Salmonidae native to northwestern North America. Historically, ''S. confluentus'' has been known as the " Dolly Varden" (''S. malma''), but was reclassified as a separate specie ...

References

External links

* {{cite web , url= https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/skeena/fish/sk_series_reports/sk_135.pdf , title= A Reconnsaisance of Tuya Lake August 7-13, 2002 , last= Beere , first= Mark C. , date= 2002 , publisher= British Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection Cassiar Land District Nahlin Plateau Rivers of British Columbia Stikine Country Tahltan Tlingit Tributaries of the Stikine River