Dala-Kildala Rivers Estuaries Provincial Park is located at the head of Kildala Arm, a fjord that extends generally southeast for 10 miles (16 km) from Douglas Channel, about 81 miles (130 km) southeast of Prince Rupert, and 13 miles (21 km) south-southeast of Kitamaat, British Columbia. The Dala River rises in a cirque basin on the western flank of Atna Peak in the Kitimat Ranges and flows southwest for 21.5 miles (35 km) to the arm. Similarly, the Kildala River emerges from cirque basins on the western flank of Pastoral Peak and travels 9 miles (15 km) south-southwest before turning west for 12 miles (19 km) to join the fjord. The Kitimat Ranges are one of three main subdivisions of British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, the others being the Pacific Ranges to the south and the Boundary Ranges to the north. They extend between the Nass River and Portland Inlet in the north and the Bella Coola River and Burke Channel in the south, bounded east by the Hazelton Mountains and west by Queen Charlotte Sound. These ranges form part of the Coast Range Arc, a vast volcanic-arc system extending from northern Washington through British Columbia and Southeast Alaska to southwestern Yukon. The arc arose from the subduction of the Kula and Farallon plates beneath the North American Plate. Known as the largest granitic outcropping in North America, it is also called the Coast Plutonic Complex or the Coast Mountains Batholith. Repeated glaciation has defined the British Columbia coast. The Fraser Glaciation (25,000–10,000 years ago) began with cooling and increased precipitation that spurred alpine-glacier growth. As glaciers advanced and merged into ice sheets, they eventually formed the Cordilleran Ice Sheet—at its peak about 560 miles (900 km) wide and over 5,000 feet (1,524 m) thick. Ice loading depressed the land, producing isostatic sea-level changes of up to 755 feet (230 m) above current levels. Deglaciation began about 12,700 years ago, when calving ice fronts allowed marine waters to flood depressed valleys such as Douglas Channel and Kildala Arm.

Aboriginal peoples have inhabited British Columbia’s coastal fjords for thousands of years. They established villages along waterways, river terraces, and trade routes linking the coast and the interior. Five First Nations—the Tsimshian, Nisga’a, Haisla, Gitxsan, and Gitanyow—claim this area of the Kitimat Ranges as their ancestral home. The Kitamaat people trace their origins to the Owikenos, who migrated from Vancouver Island and settled at the mouth of the Kitimat River, at the head of Douglas Channel. They later allied with a Gitxsan band from the Skeena River, and legend holds that the two groups merged to form the Kitamaats. A well-worn trail up the Kitimat Valley over a low divide to Kitselas attests to regular visits between kin on the Skeena. The mineral-rich Skeena Valley saw gold placers discovered in several Kitimat Range watersheds in the late 1800s. In 1893, gold, silver, and copper lodes were found in Kitselas Canyon, sparking a rush of claims and trail development. In 1905, George Little arrived at Kitselas and built a sawmill by 1911. Surveyed as a townsite of Terrace, the area soon became a key steamboat stop on the Skeena. Railroad construction reached Terrace by 1914, connecting it to the rest of Canada. Logging and lumber—initially geared toward producing cedar poles and railway ties—rapidly expanded from an abundant timber supply. Today, forestry remains the area’s economic mainstay. Timber Supply Areas govern harvest allocation, licensing, planning, and volume schedules. The 766,269-acre (310,098 ha) Dala and Kildala River watersheds form part of the Pacific Timber Supply Area, established in 2009. Over 95 percent of its timber harvest is allocated to British Columbia Timber Sales—a provincial agency that plans operations, builds roads, and auctions timber—while the remaining 5 percent is assigned to First Nation tenures through legally binding agreements that grant usage rights for public forests. These agreements ensure that First Nations maintain a role in forest management while balancing economic objectives and sustainable practices.

The Kalum Land and Resource Management Plan covers over 5.4 million acres (2.2 million ha) in northwestern British Columbia, including the Dala and Kildala River watersheds. In 2004, following plan recommendations, the province designated Dala-Kildala Rivers Estuaries Provincial Park. The park protects 1,831 acres (741 ha) of coastal habitat that serve as critical overwintering and migratory staging sites for trumpeter swan, great blue heron, western grebe, red-breasted merganser, and Canada geese. It also safeguards key grizzly bear habitat in the Kitimat Ranges and vital salmon runs, notably significant pink and chum runs alongside smaller coho and Chinook runs. The Kildala River supports an important run of eulachon, or oolichan, fish that are culturally significant to the Haisla at Kitamaat. In fact, the park was established partly to protect these fish. Eulachon are small anadromous smelt found only along the Pacific coast from northern California to the southern Bering Sea. Their name, derived from Chinook trade language, is unique to each First Nation. Colloquially known as ‘candlefish’ for its high oil content and as ‘salvation fish’ because its early-spring spawning once prevented starvation during harsh winters, eulachon have long been a dietary staple. Eulachon are eaten fresh, dried, smoked, salted, or frozen, but their rendered oil—grease—is of greatest cultural, nutritional, and economic value. Produced by cooking aged fish until the oil separates, this grease has been a dietary cornerstone, widely shared at potlatches, traded with neighboring communities, and used as medicine. Its significance is underscored by ancient ‘grease trails’ that once linked coastal bands with interior peoples. Historically, the Kitimat River’s eulachon run peaked in mid to late March; in strong years, millions were caught—for example, over a million spawners were recorded in 1991—while 2006 saw fewer than 1,000 spawners, with recent years showing similar declines in the Kemano and Kildala Rivers. Read more here and here. Explore more of the Dala and Kildala Rivers and Kildala Arm here: