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Dam Mismanagement Continues


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Fluctuating dam levels are brutal to invertebrates and fish in general. Just look at the Kananaskis river.

 

Why not wait till end of October when the river is naturally around 60 cms?

If you are truly concerned give them a call and ask, they may surprise you and have a very good reason. Its harvey passage and the end of October would have icing conditions. It actually could be a case of very good management when all the considerations are in front of you. It would really be interesting to know how they got to this decision.

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Have no idea if its related, but yesterday I noticed two boats with motors at harvie passage. Couldn't tell for sure but it looked like were surveying parts of it. Looked like they had a GPS on the boat and then later I noticed one of them using it along some of the rocks in the middle. They were in and out of the boat a fair bit. They were there for a few hours. I left around noon and they were still there. Maybe lad was on to something

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Remember guys that stream flows are not "measurements" (even if they are claimed as being such), they are estimates based on a series of assumptions, extrapolations and mathematical formulae. The only accurate measurement is the height at the gauge.

 

Everything else is calculated based on the physical (simplified) profile of the river (hence the survey) and assumptions about how much water moves past a given point at a given height. That in turn depends on some physics, including air and ground friction and how that affects velocity in different portions of the river profile, as well as how much flows accelerate in response to the river level. As the river rises, the streambed holds more water, and the water flow accelerates, raising the volume per second in two ways.

 

If the streambed profile changes even a little bit from the most recent survey, then the flow calculations are thrown off. The only thing that remains known is the gauge height. And even a dug-in gauge can be ruined by a big enough flood.

 

For the river profile, the easiest thing is to have a permanent surveying cable with one of those little trolleys, allowing pole streambed surveys to be done anytime. You see those on many rivers.

 

Even some of the government guys seem to have trouble wrapping their heads around all this. Because the numbers seem so "accurate", i.e., lots of decimal places, then they must be "measurements" and they must be right.

 

Interestingly (perhaps) the same dilemma afflicts measuring flows in gas wells. The only knowns are the gas pressure and the pipe diameter. Everything else is based on assumptions (based on past experiments) and an accepted mathematical formula.

 

What's my point? Don't put 100 percent faith in "measured" river flows. Believe what you see when you get to the river.

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Photos from yesterday: Glenmore:

https://fbcdn-photos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-0/10644488_10201625928009758_7695276474304814059_n.jpg?oh=5eece44a4b91ff68cea0955e2b0d0638&oe=545DCE9F&__gda__=1416464842_3307616f4741c5a94101ecab5b1ad612

 

Below Ivor Strong:

https://fbcdn-photos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-0/1604946_10201625926609723_2830288341044456960_n.jpg?oh=9b1792bd0940992e9aa7fd3265c5bf7f&oe=548103A7&__gda__=1415343512_1944293fba5fa1116d527c08a7924796

 

 

It's actually surprising (but not really, considering), the amount of people who just seem to not give a *hit, provided it didn't mess with their fishing (and since it was midweek).

 

I'll steal this quote from FB, but it sums it up pretty well: "the gov't does't think anybody would put clean ecosystems, health rivers, or fish over the economy or even over a few jobs. The gov't doesn't think we care and we aren't proving them wrong".

 

Considering they blamed the last outbreak of Sapro on stress due to low water in the fall, really hope we don't see it flare up again...

 

Despite how much I care for the river, a massive wipeout would be nice to just make all the people who take it for granted stop and think. Though, losing a large proportion of our Brownies doesn't seem to have made anyone blink about how our river is managed.

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If ya didn't like the cake and pie comments you ain't gonna like this'n...

 

I suppose you could always replenish them via hatchery trucks... the same way they got there in the first place. They really are no different than ringneck pheasants or grey partridges. Manage them for those who want to target them for their enjoyment but if they can't handle the conditions of a changing environment then I guess there will be an empty niche for some other species to occupy, hopefully a native one.

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