INTERACTIVE MAP: British Columbia's Northwest

[Editor's note: British Columbia’s government is hitching its economic hopes for the province to a boom in resource development. Much of that is slated for the northwest. Resource journalist Christopher Pollon traveled to the region to learn how an anticipated boom of power lines, new mines and hydro projects will affect northern communities -– for better and worse. Refer to this map and the description below as you read through the rest of his series, here. Know, too, that you can zoom in and out on the map and click the markers for more information.]

British Columbia’s northwest is a globally significant hinterland, defined by mountains, pristine salmon rivers and wide open space. It is bisected by the Stewart Cassiar Highway, the region's central piece of transportation infrastructure that as recently as the 1970s was a patchwork of dirt and gravel roads.

North of Terrace is the Nass Valley, home to the Nisga'a, historically a nation of fishermen and loggers; further inland to the east are the Gitanyow and Gitxsan, and to the north along the Stewart Cassiar is the Stikine country and the three villages of the Tahltan Nation.

The upper Stikine watershed is home to the headwaters of the Nass, Skeena and Stikine Rivers; the lower watershed, shared with Alaska, covers hundreds of hectares of temperate rainforest, where grizzly bear, grey wolf and other large mammals still thrive across vast undisturbed ranges.

Yet the northwest is a region in transition. Relatively new open pit mining technology and the extension of the electrical grid into the area are expected to unlock large, low-grade copper, gold and molybdenum deposits that have long been regarded as uneconomical to extract -- until now.

How are these developments affecting local First Nations, the environment, and relations with the neighbours in Alaska? Follow our Tyee Solutions Society Series to learn more.