Getting Land For Free?

[Glacier]

What happens when the lake level drops 20 feet?

I've circled the house where friends lived for many years. The red lines show the shoreline when I was a kid. Today, the lake level is 20 feet lower, and now there is twice as much land on the property than there was when the guy bought the place in 1990 (if we count back of lot to the edge of the water).

How does the province handle this legally? If you say that it's the high water line, how many decades or centuries do we have to go before the old 1970s water line not apply?

P.S. This is Eagle Lake, BC on the Chilcotin pleateau 200km west of Billy's Puddle (AKA Williams Lake).

P.P.S. The reason the level is dropping is that there's no outflow in this lake, and climate change means not enough water coming in to make up for evaporation and infiltration.

[Mike Br.]

Judging from the picture, it looks like a pretty isolated/remote area, so I don't think the province would care too much. Secondly (re: your p.p.s.), it's very common and highly politicized nowadays to blame just about everything under the sun on climate change. It could be many different reasons for water lever fluctuations, on any time scale.

[LANDM]

It’s called accretion and landowners have been applying for new boundaries forever when this happens.

[Urban Cowboy]

Looks quite remote so land is worth what, maybe five bucks an acre?

[Gilchy]

What's the water quality like? Having no outflows, I would think it would get pretty swampy, but that looks gorgeous!

[Urban Cowboy]

What's the water quality like? Having no outflows, I would think it would get pretty swampy, but that looks gorgeous!

Unless the gorgeous color is algae.

[Glacier]

What's the water quality like? Having no outflows, I would think it would get pretty swampy, but that looks gorgeous!

Eagle Lake has the clearest water of any lake in BC (you can see 44 feet down). Also, no weeds. The amount of outflow has little to do with water quality. Ever been to Kentucky-Alleyne lakes? No outflow there either, and very clean, pure water.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Lake_(British_Columbia)

[twobits]

P.P.S. The reason the level is dropping is that there's no outflow in this lake, and climate change means not enough water coming in to make up for evaporation and infiltration.

Not that I don't believe you but could you please back up "the reason" and "climate change" as the primary reason? The variables involved here dwarf my educational background but I would like to at least see some kind of annual rainfall data that showed a yr over yr decline in the captured watershed of this no outflow lake. Any increased lake source pumping for residential, commercial, or Industrial applications? Has any seismic activity fractured bedrock that would change water flows underground and or spring sources?

I have a great deal of respect for your opinions and posts Glace but I do hate blanket statements of "climate change" caused this without at least a little veracity especially when what we are talking about here is essentially a micro ecosystem that should be easy to empirically verify for the dramatic changes you have seen if they are related to annual rainfall amounts.

[LTD]

so in ten years if the lake starts reclaiming some of their property do you feel they should be given more land to compensate its kind of the risk you take living by water

[Glacier]

Not that I don't believe you but could you please back up "the reason" and "climate change" as the primary reason?

Climate change is what people say when they have no real clue what they have no real clue what the real cause is.

I'm not really sure why, but all lakes out there with no outflows are suffering the same fate. We used to attend hippie gatherings on Choelquoit (just south of first pic) every year. You'd have to wade out 30 feet to find the drop off. Now you can dive in from shore. Pinto Lake is now 1/3 the size it was 20 years ago.

Martin Lake is now two lakes.

There are now no longer any more weather stations out that way recording precipitation, so no way to prove a drying climate. Another theory is that the land is rising. My theory is that the lakes have been shrinking since the last ice age. Less ice in mountains raises land and reduces ground water.

[twobits]

Ya. "Climate change". A popular deflection to everything that changes or is perceived to be bad. And I am actually accepting of climate change being real. I am not a climate change denier. I fully believe our climate is changing. I just put myself in the camp that does not believe that the miniscule percentage of CO2 in the total atmosphere that man has added is a significant variable out of hundreds, that affect climate.
I think we might be over reacting just a bit and falling prey to the Industry's that are preying on fear and driving the the fear. I am more of the opinion that climate change is real and inevitable and rather than investing to stop the change that we cannot.....we should be investing in what is required to adapt and thrive with that change.

[GordonH]

It appears your friend Glacier has one hell of a herd of pet rocks. lol

[Glacier]

New theory: The reason the water levels are dropping is that the ice-free period is much less than it was 30 years ago. This allows much more evaporation. Also, more wind.

[alanjh595]

The problem that I see with receiving this "free land", is that if/when the pond fills up again, people won't want to give back control of that land.

[seewood]

New theory: The reason the water levels are dropping is that the ice-free period is much less than it was 30 years ago

I have one.
Perhaps a tremor has altered the substrate and perhaps opened up a fissure allowing the out-flow ( underground) to increase a small amount.

I have seen stream flows change after a tremor. Haida Gwai had a hot spring disappear after a tremor.

Nice area along Hwy 20 but freeking cold in the winter.