The Taseko Lakes are a pair of lakes, Upper Taseko Lake and Lower Taseko Lake, which are expansions of the upper Taseko River

Taseko River

The Taseko River , or Desiqox in the original Chilcotin, is a tributary of British Columbia's Chilko River, a tributary of the Chilcotin River which joins the Fraser near the city of Williams Lake....

 in the southern Chilcotin District

Chilcotin District

The Chilcotin District of British Columbia is usually known simply as "the Chilcotin", and also in speech commonly as "the Chilcotin Country" or simply Chilcotin. It is a plateau and mountain region in British Columbia on the inland lea of the Coast Mountains on the west side of the Fraser River....

 of the Central Interior of British Columbia

British Columbia Interior

The British Columbia Interior or BC Interior or Interior of British Columbia, usually referred to only as the Interior, is one of the three main regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the other two being the Lower Mainland, which comprises the overlapping areas of Greater Vancouver...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Their name is based on the original in the Chilcotin language

Chilcotin language

Chilcotin is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in British Columbia by the Tsilhqot’in people....

, Dasiqox Biny, where "Desiqox" means "Mosquito River" and is cognate to the name of the river as in English; the Chilcotin name refers to both lakes as one lake, which was also originally the case with the English usage until official designation of the separate lakes in 1954. The lakes are separated by the short Taseko Narrows, the name of which in Chilcotin is nanats'akash, and is an important crossing place for deer. The Tchaikazan River

Tchaikazan River

The Tchaikazan River is an important tributary of the Taseko River in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, flowing into it from the southwest at the narrows of the Taseko Lakes from its source on the north flank Mount Monmouth...

 flows the area between the upper & lower lake from the southwest, while the Taseko River feeds it from the southeast, while the equally large Lord River

Lord River

The Lord River is a tributary of the Taseko River in the southern Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, joining that river via the head of Upper Taseko Lake, which is also fed by the upper reaches of the Taseko River proper. The Lord River rises in the area of...

 joins it from the south, at the head of the lake.

History

The Taseko Lakes were proposed to be part of a massive hydroelectric development which would have seen the flow of the Taseko River dammed and diverted westward via a tunnel to Chilko Lake

Chilko Lake

Chilko Lake is a 180 km² lake in west-central British Columbia, at the head of the Chilko River on the Chilcotin Plateau. The lake is about 65 km long, with a southwest arm 10 km long. It is one of the largest lakes by volume in the province because of its great depth, and the...

, which would have been also dammed and diverted through further tunnels to Tatlayoko Lake

Tatlayoko Lake

Tatlayoko Lake is a lake on the Homathko River in the western Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located on a north-south axis just upstream of the entrance of the series of canyons of the Homathko, including the Great Canyon of the Homathko, on its route to the...

 on the Homathko River

Homathko River

The Homathko River is one of the major rivers of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, and one of the few rivers that penetrates the range from the Chilcotin Plateau to the coastal inlets, entering the sea at the head of Bute Inlet adjacent to the mouth of the Southgate River, just to...

, which unlike the Taseko and Chilko River

Chilko River

The Chilko River is a 75 km waterway in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, connecting Chilko Lake to the Chilcotin River. Its main tributary is the Taseko River....

s drains directly to the ocean at Bute Inlet

Bute Inlet

Bute Inlet is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is 80 km long from its head at the mouths of the Homathko and Southgate Rivers to the continental headlands at its mouth, where it is nearly blocked by Stuart Island, and it averages about 4 km in width...

 rather than via the Chilcotin

Chilcotin River

The Chilcotin River is a long tributary of the Fraser River in southern British Columbia, Canada. It drains the Chilcotin Plateau, which lies between the Fraser River and the Coast Mountains...

 and Fraser River

Fraser River

The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...

s. Fisheries and aboriginal land claims

Land claims

Land claims are a legal declaration of desired control over areas of property including bodies of water. The phrase is usually only used with respect to disputed or unresolved land claims...

 concerns have derailed the Taseko diversion, although the Chilko diversion remains as a possibility.

The Taseko Lakes are now part of Ts'il?os Provincial Park

Ts'il?os Provincial Park

Ts'il?os Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Ts'il?os is the official BC Parks designation for this provincial park, though sometimes it is written as "Ts'il-os", "Ts'yl-os", or "Tsylos"...

, which also includes Chilko Lake and the intervening country, including Nemaiah Valley and Yohetta Valley, which form wide alpentals connecting the two lake valleys.