Cheslatta Lake is a large

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

located between

François Lake François Lake in British Columbia is about south of Burns Lake and west of Fraser Lake. The lake is long, making it the second longest natural lake entirely within British Columbia after Babine Lake. Nadina River The Nadina River is a river ...

and the western end of the

Nechako Reservoir The Nechako Reservoir, sometimes called the Ootsa Lake Reservoir, is a hydroelectric reservoir in British Columbia, Canada that was formed by the Kenney Dam making a diversion of the Nechako River through a 16-km intake tunnel in the Kitimat Range ...

, Range 4 Coast Land District. It is in the

Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako The Regional District of Bulkley–Nechako (RDBN) is a regional district in the Canadian province of British Columbia, Canada. As of the 2016 census, the population was 37,896. The area is 73,419.01 square kilometres. The regional district offi ...

,The boundaries of the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako near-entirely coincide with the territory of the

Dakelh The Dakelh (pronounced ) or Carrier are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The "Carrier" name was derived from an English translation of ''Aghele'', the name from the neighbouring Sekani ...

or Carrier peoples. Roughly identical in area to the old New Caledonia fur district in the days of the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Etymology

The name derives from the Dakelh (pronounced ákʰɛɬ/

Carrier people The Dakelh (pronounced ) or Carrier are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The "Carrier" name was derived from an English translation of ''Aghele'', the name from the neighbouring Sekani ...

word meaning either 'top of small mountain' or 'small rock mountain on east side'. Cheslatta Lake appeared on Trutch's 1871 map of British Columbia as "Chestatta" Lake. In 1884, the spelling was changed to Cheslahta on Mohun's map of British Columbia. In 1891 the name was spelled as "Cheslata" Lake on Poudrier's map of Northern British Columbia. On 30 March 1917 the name "Cheslatta Lake" was adopted in the 15th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada based on the label on Jorgensen's 1895 map of BC, and as labelled on pre-emptor map 1G, 1916.

Trophic levels

The ecosystems of both Cheslatta Lake and the smaller Murray Lake it joins, prior to the flooding by

Kenney Dam Kenney may refer to: * Kenney (name) Places United States communities * Kenney, Illinois * Kenney, Texas Geographical features * Hotel Kenney, Rideau Lakes, Ontario, Canada * Kenney Dam, a hydroelectric dam on the Nechako River, British Col ...

construction, "were quite productive at all trophic levels including fish, as it is reported the fisheries of these lakes were utilized for centuries by first nation's people as traditional fishing grounds."

Impact of Kenney Dam

The Construction of the

Kenny Dam Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names. In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant of Cionnaith". ...

in the 1950s on the Nechako River, reversed water flow and sent water westward to generate electricity for use and sale by the Alcan corporation, devastated the area around Cheslatta Lake, flooding the

Cheslatta Carrier Nation The Cheslatta Carrier Nation or Cheslatta T'En (pronounced chez-la-ta), of the Dakelh (pronounced ) or Carrier people (Ta-cullies, meaning "people who go upon water", whose traditional lands where originally where the Kitimat Kemano Project I was ...

village and cemetery and forcing the First Nations to be relocated with little time for preparation and no consultation. Prior to the flooding, Cheslatta Lake was at the centre of the CCN traditional hunting and trapping territory. Before 1957 the Cheslatta River was a small stream with an average annual flow of about . Alcan began releasing water flows far above the Cheslatta's natural capacity, resulting in a deep channel being carved out and large-scale erosion filling the Cheslatta and upper Nechako Rivers with sediment. In addition, the area between the

Skins Lake Skin is a soft outer covering of an animal, in particular a vertebrate. Skin(s) or The Skin(s) may also refer to: Outer covering * Peel (fruit), or outer covering of any vegetable * Skin (aeronautics), the outer covering of an aircraft or its w ...

spillway and the headwaters of the Cheslatta River was not a river but rather a series of meadows, pastures, and small lakes. Water released from the reservoir scoured the area between Skins Lake and Cheslatta Lake. Soil, gravel, grass, moss, shrubs, and trees were washed away, down into the Cheslatta River and into the Nechako River. There has been a 7-fold decline in the productive capacity of Cheslatta Lake to support

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

fishes, namely

kokanee salmon The kokanee salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also known as the kokanee trout, little redfish, silver trout, kikanning, Kennerly's salmon, Kennerly's trout, or Walla, is the non-anadromous form of the sockeye salmon (meaning that they do not migrat ...

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References

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