Wzhaawshkosin Ziibii flows through tough, ancient rock that is part of a long, skinny belt of old volcanoes and sediments in Northern Ontario. Long ago, this area was underwater, and volcanoes built up layers of mud and sand on the sea floor. Over thousands of years, the river’s fast-flowing water scoured and wore away softer rock bands while harder layers stayed behind as steep walls.
During the last Ice Age, huge glaciers covered the area, deepening valleys and carving wide new U-shaped valleys. As ice melted around 10,000 years ago, the river took over, cutting canyons, narrow lakes, rapids, and waterfalls into the river you see today. Glaciers also scraped and shaped the land, leaving behind sand and gravel in the valley bottoms. These glacial deposits created flatter areas. Today, these flat areas contain wetlands, and sandy shores where forests grow.

Paddling on Wzhaawshkosin Ziibii is something that both Biigtigong Nishnaabeg members and backcountry adventurers enjoy. Biigtigong Nishnaabeg members have mapped and labelled the campsites and portages along the river route with their Anishinaabemowin names.
Steel River Provincial Park is an ideal place for backcountry canoeing, fishing, and camping. The area was first advertised as a canoeing destination by the Canadian Pacific Railway around 1890 due to its where the railway crosses the river at its mouth.
The Wzhaawshkosin Ziibii canoe route includes a steep one-kilometre portage between Santoy Lake and Diablo Lake. It then continues through Cairngorm Lake and back into the main river system. Paddlers describe the first big portage on the loop as particularly tough. This has given the route a bit of a “serious trippers only” reputation.

To protect our river, we are actively studying it. By speaking with people who use the land, and with Knowledge Holders, we have documented travel routes, cultural sites, big game and small game hunting sites, bird hunting sites, many fishing locations, sites used for trapping, and locations for gathering plant and other resources connected to Wzhaawshkosin Ziibii.

Wzhaawshkosin Ziibii is a cold-water, free-flowing river with no dams along its course. Its small falls and rapids provide habitat for brook trout, lake trout (in deeper lakes), walleye, northern pike, and white sucker. The lands surrounding Wzhaawshkosin Ziibii are rich with mixed conifer–hardwood forests and wetlands. The forests provide habitat for many boreal forest species. This includes black bears, white-tailed deer, moose, beaver, amphibians, reptiles, and a wide variety of bird species. The river corridor also provides important habitat for a range of species at risk (plants and animals that need help to increase their numbers).
Biigtigong Nishnaabeg is actively involved in caribou conservation projects in our territory. This work helps us understand how protected areas, like the Biigtigong Nishnaabeg Waterways, may support threatened caribou. The river may provide important habitat for a threatened population of caribou. This caribou herd previously lived along the islands and shoreline of northern Lake Superior.