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[RalphH]

Yes, not only the Nooksack, but also the Upper Skagit used to flow into the Fraser. I'm fascinated by the places where these rivers intersect in high water. The Nooksack and Johnson Creek, which flows into the Sumas River, are only separated by low farm land, so it isn't hard for them to combine. Same for the South Fork of the Nooksack and the Samish River, which flow in opposite directions in the same valley. I wonder what hopping points there are like this with BC rivers. It also reminds me of the special places in Yellowstone National Park where Snake River tributaries can flow either way over the continental divide, meaning you have cutthroat that are actually east of the Rocky Mountains. I have also thought that if the Chilliwack native spring chinook really are extirpated, the North Fork Nooksack stock may be genetically similar enough to re-establish that run, since these rivers have meandered and connected to a certain degree over recent geologic time.

may explain the sudden appearance of bass in the Fraser Valley in the 80s and 90s. Some have since certainly been moved by the bucket brigade but some US watersheds aren't as separated from Canadian waters as we'd like to believe.

[wildmanyeah]

may explain the sudden appearance of bass in the Fraser Valley in the 80s and 90s. Some have since certainly been moved by the bucket brigade but some US watersheds aren't as separated from Canadian waters as we'd like to believe.

so does that make them a native species?

[CohoJake]

so does that make them a native species?

They aren't native to Washington waters, so no.

I know there are LMB in the Nooksack watershed downstream of Lynden, in Wiser Lake, but I don't know of any upstream. However, as I have speculated before, I think Boundary (Judson) lake likely overflows into the Sumas system during floods, and that is where I caught my first LMB.

[clarki]

I have also thought that if the Chilliwack native spring chinook really are extirpated, the North Fork Nooksack stock may be genetically similar enough to re-establish that run, since these rivers have meandered and connected to a certain degree over recent geologic time.

That's a point made by the speaker in this video, that Rod posted in another thread,
of the genetic similarity between Chilliwack and Nooksak chinook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M3MmDyKk0I Beginning at 5:50     

[CohoJake]

That's a point made by the speaker in this video, that Rod posted in another thread,
of the genetic similarity between Chilliwack and Nooksak chinook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M3MmDyKk0I Beginning at 5:50     

I don't know how I missed it earlier, this is amazing! Thanks for the link.

[RalphH]

genetically interior Fraser coho and steelhead are more closely related to equivalent stocks in the Columbia than those in the lower Fraser. The upper part of the Thompson system first flowed east into the Columbia as at the end of the Pleistocene, the Columbia basin was free of glaciers before the current Fraser basin and South Coast mountains were so it's assumed the Columbia was the source of the first salmonid colonizers of BC's interior.

[chief]

Recently took a look at the shocking video of the devastation along Highway 8 between Merrit and Spences Bridge. So many chunks of highway are washed out it will takes years to replace if ever. Hard to believe that a stretch of highway that has been around for nearly a century was wiped out in a couple of days. Feel bad for the FN , ranchers and others who lived along Highway 8

[wildmanyeah]

Recently took a look at the shocking video of the devastation along Highway 8 between Merrit and Spences Bridge. So many chunks of highway are washed out it will takes years to replace if ever. Hard to believe that a stretch of highway that has been around for nearly a century was wiped out in a couple of days. Feel bad for the FN , ranchers and others who lived along Highway 8

There’s no cheap solution it’s now 100s of millions of u want to fix that highway

[clarki]

I don't know how I missed it earlier, this is amazing! Thanks for the link.

Playing with Google Earth tonight... I never realized how closely linked the Chilliwack and Nooksak Rivers are.

The Chilliwack's headwaters are on the north flank of Ruth Mountain, and the Ruth Glacier.

A tributary of the Nooksak, Ruth Creek, also flows off the same glacier. The only thing separating the Nooksak and Chilliwack watersheds is narrow ridge that runs north of Ruth Mountain.   

[DanL]

Does anyone have a link to recent satellite imagery of affected areas?

[Roderick]

Since our lives are relatively, so short, we tend to think our common landscape features change little over time. Who would think for example, that the Nooksack River was once a tributary of the Fraser river, or that 10,000 or so years ago almost none of our favorite fishing spots in the Valley and LM existed. They would have been covered by hundreds of feet of seawater. The valley up to Hope was a saltwater sound. Both Harrison and Pitt lakes were not lakes but saltwater inlets of the Salish Sea.

The whole area from the north shore south to Bellingham and east to Agassiz or Hope used to be the Fraser river delta.  12,000 years ago it was covered in Ice.  As the >1km thick glaciers retreated, and the Fraser had a much higher water flow, the glaciers ground down the coast mountains and the Fraser deposited all that sand and gravel at it's mouth, just like what it does at sandheads today.  Also as the weight of the glaciers was reduced, the whole area slowly rose out of the sea (post-glacial rebound). 

[Bavarian Raven]

There’s no cheap solution it’s now 100s of millions of u want to fix that highway

Atthis point it might not be worth fixing - especially as these type of events are becoming more and more common. :/

[RalphH]

there were basically 2 effects on sea level at the end of the Pleistocene; 1) changes in the water cycle water was stored on land as glacial ice which caused sea levels to drop. This was then released when the glaciers melted causing the sea levels to rise. 2) the weight of glacial ice pushed the continental plates beneath and  surrounding the ice sheets down into the earths outer crust. When the ice melted it sprang back up higher than previously. From what I recall when I studied archaeology & geography at SFU the immediate change in sea level locally was a drop of about 600 feet due to ice melting and filling the ocean. Then the depressed plates sprang back up higher than currently then settled back to the levels we more or less have today.

[wildmanyeah]

Atthis point it might not be worth fixing - especially as these type of events are becoming more and more common. :/

Thought there were a couple of First Nation community’s that needs it

[kanuckle head]

Round 2 for the Vedder, so sad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOWlyzVkn4U