Only a short drive from downtown Whitehorse, a distinctive salt flats forms a unique natural area in the Yukon. Located northeast of the Takhini River bridge on the Alaska Highway, this ecosystem is home to plants and insects found nowhere else in the territory.

Bruce Bennett, a botanist now working for the Yukon's wildlife viewing program, first visited the area in 1997. While new to the Yukon then, Bennett quickly recognized that the salt flats were very different from anything else that he had seen in the territory.

For one, it is home to a variety of halophiles, or salt-loving plants. One of the most distinctive plants is a bright-red sea asparagus. Bennett says that this plant is so unusual that its species name is still in doubt.

There are also a number of annual species of plants. "The words 'annual', 'native' and 'Yukon' usually don't fall in the same sentence," says Bennett. "Being an annual is not a great strategy in the Yukon, which is why we don't have a lot of weeds here. But in this area the annuals probably don't have a lot of competition." An annual species of daisy, the Rayless Aster, grows nowhere else in the Yukon.

Alkaline flats are relatively common in the Yukon, and can be recognized by the white crust that various salts form on the surface. But in this area, large salt crystals can be found on the ground. "You can pick up a handful of salt instead of just seeing a crust on the surface," he says.

Artesian wells bubble underneath the salt flats, infusing the area with minerals such as sodium sulfates. In the spring, when the snowpack melts, these minerals would normally be washed into the ground, but permafrost in the area keeps the water table near the surface.

As summer progresses, the standing water slowly evaporates, allowing the crystals to form on the surface. Bennett says that it is likely the same process that has created the salt flats on the Slims River delta in the Kluane area, but salt crystals do not form there.

The Takhini Salt Flats form in a series of bowl-shaped depressions. The minerals that accumulate there are not the type that attract wildlife such as moose and deer, but the area is home to an unusual array of beetles.

Other lakes in the area are too large to dry up. Aspen is the dominant tree on the surrounding uplands, resulting from an old burn. A paleobiologist who has looked at the area describes it as a "forested steppe."

Bennett has talked to a number of different scientists about the area, including geologists, paleontologists and other botanists. He says they all describe the area as very unique.

"There's nothing like it anywhere else in the territory. It's an amazing place, and it's amazing that no one is jumping up and down and waving banners about it," he says.

Bennett is now trying to gather more information on the area. A few weeks ago he sent soil and mineral samples taken there out for testing. A Quebec geography professor who does field work in the territory has offered to have a graduate student analyze sediments taken from the salt flats. By looking at the invertebrates in the sediments, it is possible to tell how the salinity of the area has changed over time.

The salt flats are on Crown land, and even though the area is leased for grazing, it is not closed to the public. The Yukon's Wildlife Viewing Program has organized an interpretive hike there for Saturday, August 21. Anyone interested in attending should meet at the Beringia Center parking lot at 11 a.m.

For more information call Bruce Bennett at the Wildlife Viewing office at 667-5331.