The Taiya Inlet Watershed Council is concerned with the health and vitality of upper Taiya Inlet streams and rivers including the Skagway and Taiya Rivers, Burro Creek, Kasidaya Creek, and Pullen Creek. Land ownership in these watersheds is a complex mix of private property and public lands administered by the City of Skagway and various state and federal agencies.
TIWC is based in Skagway, a town of just over 800 permanent residents and a population of over 2,000 during the May-September visitor season. Before the town of Skagway was established in the late 1890s, the area was and continues to be a geographically important activity center for coastal Tlingit and interior First Nations peoples.
Currently, Skagway hosts over 750,000 visitors annually; over two-thirds from cruise ships, making it the 14th most visited tourist port in the world. The area contains two National Historic Landmarks—the Skagway Historic District and White Pass National Historical Landmark (1962), and the Chilkoot Trail and Dyea Site National Historical Landmark (1978) both commemorating the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush.