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A hillside burned by a wildfire in 2017 has collapsed into the Chilcotin River, creating a temporary lake some 11km long. The Chilcotin River empties into the Fraser, which runs through Vancouver, BC on its way to the Pacific Ocean. There are concerns that if the landslide-created dam gets washed away, the temporary lake could rush downstream creating flooding risks down to the Fraser Valley.
Ariel Photo of the landslide:
As you can see, the landslide from the top left of the photo is blocking the river which had been flowing from the top right to the bottom left...
They now think that a catastrophic collapse of the natural dam is less likely. But eventually, the temporary lake will simply top the dam, overflow it, and erode it down...
Discussion (17)
Oh man
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Ripple effects of poor forest management (no pun intended)?
We're about to spend about $2k hiring a crew to do fire mitigation at the back of our small lot which abuts a greenway. There's another 30 to 40 feet below our property line with dense undergrowth and dead wood that belongs to the city and remains unmitigated. Probably a waste of $$ and energy if anything starts up back there, but we do what we can.
Wildfires suck. People are a part of nature and have needs our "environmentalists" won't let us address. Did I mention wildfires suck?
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The river is expected to over top the dam in the wee hours tonight. So we'll have some exciting news next week.
I expect that once the water starts flowing over the dam, it'll rapidly erode most of it away - except maybe some of the larger rocks - so this could be the hot new white water rafting spot next summer.
Also they're claiming that the wildfire that burned this hillside in 2017 was not the cause of the landslide... Erosion then? It may have not been the cause - but the long dead trees were not enough to keep the hillside stable.
I dont understand the ramifications here. So what if the wildfire caused the landslide or not? Are we worried that last summer's record arson season will have ramifications for the next decade?
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I thought it was Fraser River, not Frasier.
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This is the downside of using spell checker... Just because its a word doesnt mean its the write word.
Thanks, Fixed.
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