Chilko Lake
| Chilko Lake | ||
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| Chilko Lake | ||
| Geographical location | Chilcotin District in British Columbia ( Canada ) | |
| Tributaries | Deschamps Creek, Edmond Creek, Farrow Creek, Nemaia Creek, Nine Mile Creek, Norrington Creek, Rainbow Creek, Tredcroft Creek, Tsuniah Creek | |
| Drain | Chilko River → Chilcotin River → Fraser River | |
| Islands | Duff Island | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 51 ° 15 ′ N , 124 ° 5 ′ W | |
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| Altitude above sea level | 1172 m | |
| surface | 169 km² | |
| length | 65 km | |
| width | 5 km | |
| scope | approx. 170 km | |
| Maximum depth | 366 m | |
| Middle deep | 137 m | |
| Catchment area | 2130 km² | |
The Chilko Lake is a 159 km² large lake in central-western British Columbia in the Coast Mountains . The lake is about 65 km long and has a 10 km long south-western arm. The on 1172 m Situated height Chilko Lake is the largest natural high-altitude lake in British Columbia. Its maximum depth is 366 m, the mean depth is 137 m. The catchment area of the lake is 2130 km². The Chilko River drains the lake to the north. The mean discharge is 42.9 m³ / s.
geography
The lake corresponds to the many fjords on the coast of British Columbia, it is just on the other side of the Coast Mountains. The valley of the lake does not open towards the sea, but towards a wide lava plateau ( Chilcotin Plateau ) that lies inland. The mountains at the upper end of the lake are among the highest in the province. Two broad glacial valleys run to the two smaller Taseko Lakes in the east, which also drain into the Chilko River to the north. Both flow over the Chilcotin River to the Fraser River . The Tatlayoko Lake in the west on the other side of the mountain is not part of the catchment area of the Fraser River. It drains into the Homathko River which flows into the Bute Inlet .
The area between northern Chilko Lake and the Taseko Lake Basin and the two valleys between the lakes are protected as Ts'ilʔos Provincial Park . This area is administered by BC Parks and Xeni Gwet'in , a First Nation group in the Nemaia Valley and a member of the Chilcotin . Ts'ilʔos is the name of Tsilhqot'in for Mount Tatlow (3,063 m), which is located in the mountain range between Chilko Lake and the Taseko Lakes. The mountains in the north of Chilko Lake, crowned by Monmouth Mountain with 3,182 m and in the southwest of the lake between two foothills of Mount Good Hope (3,242 m) in the mountain range of Mount Queen Bess (3,298 m) and south of Tatlayoko Lake are even higher and even higher Mount Waddington .
Sea fauna
The following fish species are found in Chilko Lake: bull trout , king salmon , dolly-varden trout , various Cyprinidae (minnow), Prosopium williamsoni (mountain whitefish), rainbow trout , sockeye salmon , steelhead trout , sucker carp of the genus Catostomus and Prosopium spp. and Coregonus spp. and Stenodus spp. (Whitefish).
history
In the area around Chilko Lake , some maneuvers and sitouts took place in the Chilcotin War , which took place in 1864. The Tsilhqot'in who live here say that they are descendants of the Klatsassin , the main leaders in war. The area around the lakes is also the habitat for some of the last remnants of the once numerous wild horses of the Chilcotin District , especially in the plateau Brittany Triangle between the Chilko River and the Taseko River . It was a controversial issue between conservationists and industry in 2005 , although it was not as important as in other regions of the province.
Plans for hydropower plants to channel the Taseko Lakes into Chilko Lake and the Chilko River and Taseko River into Tatlayoko Lake via a series of dams along the Homathko River were made because of the provincial park status that Chilko Lake and the Enjoying Taseko Lakes, abandoned. The area between Tatlayoko Lake and Chilko Lake is not protected and plans for dams and power plants in the canyon of the Homathko River are still possible. The largest dam would be built directly over the site of the first "battle" of the Chilcotin Wars. This location is marked on administrative maps as Murderer's Bar .
Web links
- Chilko Lake . In: BC Geographical Names (English)