A Celebration of Rivers!

With a Canadian Thanksgiving upon us this weekend and with World Rivers Day just past (see attached article)....I thought I would offer up my personal tribute to the tributaries in my backyard. Consider it a thanksgiving for the blessings our Northern rivers bring!

It is a land of rivers. A place where the milky, glacial Telkwa joins the broad, green Bulkley in its slide past Smithers. It is the crash of waters at Moricetown; a place of slippery rocks, cool mist and thick moss. A place of spears and nets and silver salmon. It has the stealth of trophy steelhead at the Morice, the schools of river-run red sockeye at the Babine and the constant padding of bear paws over boulders on many riverbanks. Soon..the Skeena joins in and snakes large to a waiting Pacific sea. Further north in Spatsizi and Klappan and Dease the headwaters of other great rivers are spawned in high meadowland as meandering creeks. The Nass and the wild Stikine join their Skeena cousin and flow past the watchful gaze of upland caribou herds and wind through stark, goat-perched canyons. Tributaries like the Skud, the Chutine and the Mosque add more bulk and rain forest fuel to this mighty northern trio.

It is the land of the Tahltan, the Carrier, the Gitxan and the Nishga peoples. A place of ancient villages and mythologies. The land of Raven, Bear and Frog. A place of land claims, clans, totems and hereditary chiefs.

It is a land of hunters and fishermen and farmers. A place of pioneers and mountaineers and moose. Hay fields grow gold and berries thicken in too brief summer sun. Bears and livestock are happy and well fed! It is a land of loggers and rodeos; fiddlers and fly fishermen. Geologists drool while southern suits smile with sly resource lust.

It is a land of mountains and glaciers. A land of spruce and bug-infested pine. A land of incessant rain and washed-out roads; snow plows and ice jams.

But from Cassiar to Kitwanga; from Houston to Telegraph Creek; from Eddentedenjon to Port Edward it is first and foremost a land made more abundant and joyful by sparkling creeks, silver streams , lakes and great rivers. Timeless in their seasons; powerfull and meaningful in their message.

A true blessing to all living things.

(ps great song with not so great vid in video section!)