[5] Considered one of the last truly wild large rivers in BC,[6] the Stikine flows through a variety of landscapes including boreal forest, steep canyons and wide glacial valleys.

The river's salmon run supports large commercial and subsistence fisheries, and its extensive estuary and delta provide habitat for numerous fish and migratory bird species.

[12] Russian fur traders called the river ryka Stahkin (река Стакин), changed to Stikine by the United States Coast Survey in 1869 after the Alaska Purchase.

[36] Turning south, the Stikine flows through the Tahltan Highland along the eastern side of the Coast Mountains, where it receives numerous tributaries including the Chutine[37] and Porcupine Rivers.

[48] The Stikine basin includes several major terranes or crustal fragments that accreted to the western North American continent starting from about 180 million years ago.

"[22] Archeological sites in southeast Alaska suggest that the first humans arrived in this region about 10,000 years ago, around the end of the last glaciation, when ice dams that had previously blocked the Stikine were receding.

[12] From the coast, goods including eulachon, salmon oil, shells, woven baskets and blankets, as well as slaves obtained by the militaristic Haida, were ferried to the interior and exchanged for furs, caribou and moose hides, babiche, and obsidian knives and arrowheads (the latter mined from volcanic deposits around Mount Edziza).

In light of this and declining profits from the fur trade, Russia feared it would lose control of its North American colonies to Great Britain, and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867.

Due to being considered international waters, the Stikine was marketed as the "All-Canadian" route to the Yukon, allowing travelers to avoid customs duties at the Alaska border.

[81] In its promotion of the route, the Canadian government promised a "first-class wagon road" to be built from Telegraph Creek to Teslin Lake, where miners could board boats for the journey down the Yukon River.

After the end of the Klondike gold rush, riverboats continued to operate on the Stikine, carrying oil, machinery and food upriver and returning with furs and ore, in addition to ferrying passengers.

The "Pacific Northern Railway" (PNR) was intended to open up the mineral and timber resources of the area and was ultimately proposed to reach Alaska via the Yukon.

[91][93] In 2000 the Tahltan negotiated a management plan with the BC government, which protected parts of the Stikine River including the Grand Canyon from future hydroelectric development.

[97] Pink and chum (dog) salmon spawn in August, primarily in the main Stikine below the Tahltan River;[58] compared to the other species, these runs are relatively small.

[58] The Stikine basin is also home to several species of freshwater fish, including the coastal cutthroat, lake, rainbow and Dolly Varden trout, grayling, mountain whitefish and longnose sucker.

This is largely due to geological barriers – such as the rapids of the Grand Canyon, and falls on tributaries such as the Iskut River – which naturally block between 50[58] and 75 percent[97] of potential spawning habitat within the Stikine basin.

[58] Across the interior of the Stikine basin, vast expanses of wilderness support a diversity of animal populations including caribou, mountain goats, Stone sheep, black and brown bears, wolverines, marmots, moose and wolves.

"[104] Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park, located at the headwaters of the Stikine, includes crucial winter caribou range, as well as the Gladys Lake Ecological Reserve, which preserves mountain goat and sheep habitat.

[10] The Stikine River delta is an 11,000-hectare (27,000-acre), up to 26-kilometre (16 mi) wide estuary with a mix of freshwater and tidal wetlands, islands, mud and grass flats, and riparian forests.

During low flows in winter, exposed glacial sediments in the upstream Stikine River are blown towards the coast to be deposited as loess on delta islands, renewing nutrients in the soil.

[105] Numerous mammal species also use the delta including Sitka black-tailed deer, moose, bears, gray wolf, coyote, mink, river otter, beaver, seals and sea lions.

[108][109] Numerous features along this section of the Stikine River, including Mud, Flood and Great Glaciers in BC and Chief Shakes Hot Springs in Alaska, are only accessible by boat.

Economic activities such as mining, logging and grazing are allowed on the SMZs, but are subject to regulation, with objectives such as preserving wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.

[123] Despite the Stikine's long history of mining development, in the 1990s and early 2000s both the U.S. Geological Survey and Environment Canada reported water quality in the lower river as generally good, except for elevated copper levels.

[125][126] Tahltan tribal leaders have generally been supportive of this mine and some others due to the economic benefits for the region; however, they have opposed projects that impact sites of cultural significance.

[124] The Klappan Coalbed Methane Project, first proposed in 2004, would drill for natural gas on the Spatsizi Plateau in the middle of the Sacred Headwaters, where the Stikine, Skeena and Nass rivers rise.

[130] In 2014, BC Hydro completed the first stage of the Northwest Transmission Line (NTL), extending the electric grid north from Terrace to the community of Iskut near the Stikine River.

[132] Several run-of-the-river type hydroelectric projects, smaller in scale than the massive dams proposed in the 1980s, have been built in the Stikine basin to feed power into the extended grid.

[134] The Alaska Energy Authority has criticized the plans, as the low population, long distances, and rugged terrain would make a region-wide power grid uneconomical.

One of the proposed alternatives would construct a road along the lower Stikine and Iskut Rivers – currently a roadless wilderness area – with either a ferry terminal or bridges connecting to Wrangell and Petersburg.