Our Land & Waters

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The Tlowitsis Nation has identified Port Neville and the Fulmore watershed as core lands for treaty settlement. These areas are of cultural importance as well as being ecologically diverse and productive. For these reasons and many more, the Tlowitsis identified Port Neville and Fulmore watershed as the place integral to the management of their traditional lands and waters moving towards treaty settlement.

The area in the Fulmore watershed and adjacent areas include two reserves: Hanatsa and Har-khom (Port Neville). Historic records have indicated that both were set aside as fishing stations in 1886. Har-khom was recorded by the Indian Reserve Commissioner, Peter O’Reilly, as having a traditional fishing weir as well as having large quantities of fish being cured, and from appearances a supply equal to the demands of the entire tribe may have be taken from the Fulmore River. Tlowitsis has a 60-acre property at Port Neville, mainly used by the Guardians, which includes a house that sleeps six, storage buildings, a workshop, and a public dock on the adjacent property that is managed by the Strathcona Regional District. The Tlowitsis also now has a functional accommodation cabin, provided by DFO, at the log handling site just outside the Fulmore estuary. This is primarily used by Guardians and other contractors who are in the field doing stewardship work, research, and monitoring.

The Fulmore Lake watershed is a relatively low elevation, low relief watershed occupying the mainland coast at the head of Port Neville of Johnstone Strait. Fulmore Lake discharges through the Fulmore River into Port Neville.
Fulmore salmon population: The Fulmore watershed is utilized by all 5 salmon species, Rainbow and Cutthroat trout, steelhead, and Dolly Varden char. Sockeye and Chum have been recorded as the dominant species, and both have been indicated as historically harvested by Tlowitsis people. A productive forest environment in conjunction with the fisheries attributes make this area important for grizzly bears and other terrestrial organisms.

Historical information indicates that Sockeye migrate from the ocean, up the Fulmore River into Fulmore Lake from late May or early June, continuing through July and August. Since the initiation of the Sockeye Fence in 2021 we now know that migration starts in late April and possibly earlier and goes to early September. Similar to other coastal lake-spawning Sockeye populations, they enter the lake during the summer months where they remain until spawning on the lake shores or lake tributaries in the fall. Salmon stock assessment data is limited with a high level of uncertainty. Escapement estimates by DFO exist back to 1929 but the more recent time-period (1990-present) yields very little record of fish inspections and is considered to have a high degree of uncertainty around the estimates.

NEW: In November 2025, Tlowitsis Guardians and consultants identified a new sockeye spawning area in Fulmore Lake, spotting nearly 500 sockeye in the lake at the time.