When Disaster Struck the River, Indigenous Leadership Led the Response
In July 2024, a large landslide blocked the Chilcotin River, stopping the flow of water for six days. Water backed up more than 11 kilometers upstream, forming a temporary lake and leading to flood warnings and evacuation orders for nearby communities. The sudden blockage threatened not only people’s safety, but also salmon and the health of the river.
In early August, the river slowly began to break through the debris. Instead of releasing all at once, water gradually carved a new path through the blockage. This slow release allowed water to drain safely over time, preventing a sudden flood downstream. While sediment washed through the river and changed some fish habitat, the gradual flow helped protect communities and underscored the need for quick, informed action to safeguard rivers, salmon migration and the people who rely on them.
A Crisis for Salmon
The landslide hit during peak Chinook and Sockeye salmon migration, when fish were returning to spawn. Thick, sediment-filled water delayed migration, injured fish and caused fish mortality across several salmon runs. Indigenous monitoring later estimated that the Chilko sockeye run lost about 50% of returning fish.
Indigenous Leadership in Action
The Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG), moved quickly to respond, leading an Emergency Salmon Task Force with provincial and federal partners, ensuring Indigenous leadership guided decisions during the crisis. With continued support from the Indigenous Stewardship Fund (ISF) in 2024 and 2025, TNG launched post-landslide monitoring to:
- Track cloudy, sediment-filled water
- Monitor salmon movement through the river
What Monitoring Shows
Despite difficult conditions:
- By October 2024, about 6,400 Chinook and 65,000 sockeye passed monitoring points, with nearly 49,000 sockeye reaching spawning areas.
- In 2025, water downstream of the slide continued to show extremely muddy conditions, confirming the landslide’s long-term effects on the river.
Water quality conditions upstream of the slide impact area (left) and downstream of the slide impact area (right) captured on
July 16, 2025. (Photo Credit: Tsilhqot’in National Government)
Building on this work, TNG has announced in January 2026 a proactive next step: funding measures to reduce rockfall risk at Farwell Canyon, a critical salmon migration corridor. This action aims to prevent future blockages that could again threaten salmon passage.
Support from ISF in 2024 and 2025 played a key role in enabling this progress, demonstrating how timely, Indigenous-led response and recovery efforts can move from emergency reaction to long-term protection.
Why This Work Matters
As a consequence of climate change, landslides, rockfalls and floods are becoming more frequent. The Chilcotin landslide showed how quickly rivers and salmon can be put at risk. It also showed what’s possible when Indigenous Nations are supported to lead.
“ISF came forward as a truly aligned funding partner. The early and unconditional funding provided significant support as the Tsilhqot’in Nation led ambitious and collaborative efforts to protect salmon returning to the Chilcotin River.”
— Michelle Tung, Fisheries Strategy Lead, Tsilhqot’in National Government
By investing in Indigenous-led monitoring and emergency response, ISF helps ensure salmon and the communities that depend on them have a fighting chance when rivers change and shows that environmental work can move from reacting to crises to protecting ecosystems before it’s too late.
The Indigenous Stewardship Fund (ISF) works in close partnership with the First Nations Fisheries Council (FNFC), which serves as a frontline organization for collaboration with First Nations across British Columbia. FNFC leads relationship-building and engagement with more than 200 First Nations across the province, listening to and identifying Nations’ interests, priorities and perspectives. ISF complements this work by serving as the funding mechanism that helps turn those relationships and priorities into action. Together, FNFC and ISF ensure that the leadership, needs and priorities of BC First Nations are met with flexible and accessible resources that support Indigenous-led stewardship, habitat protection and long-term environmental resilience.
