Placer mining in wetlands, particularly in the Indian River Valley, must stop, say representatives of the Tr’ondëk Hwëchin.

Chief Roberta Joseph and several other representatives of the Dawson City First Nation made presentations Tuesday to the Yukon Water Board during the first of three days of public interest hearings into the issue of placer mining in wetlands.

This morning opened with submissions from the Klondike Placer Mining Association and Ducks Unlimited.

Mayo’s First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dün and the Yukon Chamber of Mines were scheduled to address the board this afternoon.

Chief Joseph said their citizens and their government are very concerned about the cumulative impact placer mining has had on their lands and traditional territory.

The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in have a deep cultural and spiritual connection to the land, water and wildlife, Joseph told the board during the virtual hearing.

She said wetlands are essential to the health of the land, the health of fish and wildlife the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in depend on.

Wetlands have an important ecological function as they ensure water quality, they maintain water volumes and they sequester carbon, the chief insisted.

Joseph said wetlands provide habitat for wildlife, it’s where citizens of the First Nation have hunted and fished for thousands of years.

Destroy the wetlands, she said, and you disrupt that spiritual and cultural connection the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in have with the land.

“The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in have a cultural and traditional obligation to be stewards of the land,” said the chief, who was recently elected to her third term in office.

Joseph said damage to wetlands caused by placer mining cannot be reclaimed, or returned to their natural state.

When wetlands are destroyed, people have fewer places to fish and hunt, they lose that cultural and traditional connection to lands that have sustained them, she said.

The chief said the placer mining in the Indian River Valley has caused extensive degradation.

The damage is already beyond repair, regardless of what reclamation efforts are made, she said.

Joseph noted the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) decided in 2016 that placer mining in wetlands should not be allowed.

Yet the Yukon government continues to permit it, she said.

The chief pointed out the First Nation has 14 parcels of settlement land in the Indian River Valley.

Darren Taylor is the director of Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in’s Department of Natural Resouces who also served as chief for nine years from 1998 – the year the First Nation signed its land claim and self-government agreements – to 2007.

Taylor painted a bleak picture of the impact placer mining has had on the Indian River Valley and its wetlands.

‘It is depressing because of all the changes,” Taylor told the board, adding he no longer takes children there, or his children’s children.

“Part of ourselves die when our relationship to the land changes.”

When the young people walk along the tailings left behind by placer mining, he said, they feel a sense of loss.

Taylor said the Dawson area is more at risk of negative impacts from placer mining than anywhere else in the Yukon, and it’s reaching a tipping point.

“If we continue to destroy the land and water with no regard, we will replicate what happened in the Indian River throughout our traditional territory,” he told the board.

Taylor said it’s death by 1,000 cuts, or 1,000 projects.

There are lessons that need to be learned from the mistakes made in the Indian River Valley, he said.

Both Taylor and Chief Joseph called on the water board to make sure there is no further damage to wetlands.

Both said they are not opposed to mining, but it needs to be done in a responsible and sensitive manner.

One of five Tr’ondëk elders who addressed the board said wetlands are an essential and integral part of the ecosystem.

Once a system is put out of balance, it’s out of balance, she said.

“You don’t know how far you’ve gone until you go too far.”

The chief said the First Nation has fundamental rights created through their land claim and self-government agreements that ensure its participation managing the land.

The Yukon Conservation Society (YCS) and CPAWS argued the water board needs to have more comprehensive information on individual applications to make informed decisions.

It needs to understand the cumulative impacts of several operations in one watershed like the Indian River watershed.

There is a fundamental need to establish guidelines for reclamation of placer mines, along with creating a method of evaluating the success of reclamation efforts and ongoing monitoring for years to come, they suggested.

Sebastian Jones of the conservation society told board members the Yukon government currently reviews reclamation plans on its own.

“YCS is extremely concerned with the current state of affairs, where affected First Nations, mandated boards and committees and other stakeholders have little or no input to reclamation plans,” said Jones.

“It must be noted that not only has the Yukon water board been declining to approve disturbing the Indian River wetlands without a proven reclamation plan, but YESAB has been recommending against further disturbance, degradation and destruction of these wetlands, as have First Nations and conservation groups such as ourselves and DUC (Ducks Unlimited).

“In fact, the only people who seem to think that mining in the remaining wetlands in the Indian River is a good idea are placer miners,” Jones said.

Randi Newton of CPAWS suggested the Indian River watershed is already at or beyond the threshold of being able to bounce back from further interruptions to wetlands in the valley.

A guiding principle in assessing mining applications needs to be the assurance that the wetlands can be restored to an acceptable state afterwards, that impacts can be mitigated, including cumulative impacts throughout the watershed, she said.

Newton said if it can’t be demonstrated that impacts can be mitigated and reclamation to suitable standards can be achieved, mining should not be allowed.

There must be no net loss of the benefits wetlands provide as a result of placer mining, she insisted.

Newton said the water board should require financial security to ensure reclamation plans are carried out to the standards expected.