Ni'iinlii Njik (Fishing Branch) Territorial Park

Yukon Territorial Park And Vuntut Gwitchin Settlement Land Of About 6,500 Square Kilometres Protecting The Fishing Branch River, Where Spring Fed Water Stays Ice Free All Winter And Grizzlies Fish For Chum Salmon Into December · Old Crow, Yukon

The FISHING BRANCH RIVER is fed by springs that keep a stretch of it ICE-FREE THROUGH THE YUKON WINTER, and a large run of CHUM SALMON spawns in that open water late in the year. The result is one of the strangest wildlife spectacles in North America: GRIZZLY BEARS FISHING IN OPEN WATER IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, at temperatures well below freezing, their wet coats freezing into a shell of frost so that they appear white - the ICE BEARS. They den in caves in the limestone of Bear Cave Mountain above the river. The park protects about six thousand five hundred square kilometres of this country and was established in 1999 as part of the VUNTUT GWITCHIN FINAL AGREEMENT; much of it is Gwitchin settlement land and access is tightly controlled to protect the bears. VISITOR NUMBERS ARE DELIBERATELY TINY - a handful of people a year, through one permitted operator, at very high cost.

Fishing Branch River, northern Yukon, Vuntut Gwitchin traditional territory, Old Crow, Yukon, Canada

ACCESS IS TIGHTLY CONTROLLED AND VISITOR NUMBERS ARE DELIBERATELY TINY. THIS IS NOT A PARK YOU CAN VISIT INDEPENDENTLY: much of it is Vuntut Gwitchin settlement land, the bears are the reason for the protection, AND ACCESS HAS BEEN THROUGH A SINGLE PERMITTED OPERATOR running a very small number of guided trips. THE SPECTACLE SEASON IS LATE AUTUMN - roughly OCTOBER TO DECEMBER - when the chum salmon are in the spring-fed open water and the grizzlies are on them in freezing temperatures. Trips are flown in by small aircraft or helicopter and run at very high cost, and they book far ahead. CONDITIONS ARE EXTREME: this is deep cold, in the dark half of the Yukon year, in a place with no infrastructure. Confirm current arrangements with Yukon Parks and the Vuntut Gwitchin Government.

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