A May 23 landslide on a Stikine River tributary in British Columbia will likely not affect salmon runs on the river there, officials with a nearby First Nations band said.
The landslide sent large rocks tumbling into the Tahltan River and could have potentially impeded returning salmon. Officials with the band at Telegraph Creek were keeping an eye on the river. In the short term, the danger to the spring salmon fishery appears to be mitigated by the effects of melting snows which, driving the river level up, should raise the level enough for smolt to get over, said Ryan Franke with the Tahltan nation.
“The only concern now is how big the river gets, and maybe if it washes out the landslide, it goes and releases a ton of water all at once, which would be a problem,” he said
The rockslide is huge, Franke said.
“One rock is bigger than an A6 Cat,” he said.
A similar event in 1965 drove members of the local band to the river with dip nets to, in essence, help returning spawners over the obstruction and back up to salmon grounds. A similar approach would use a different method today, according to Franke.
“We might use a helicopter with a bucket,” he said.
Reader Comments(0)