Pike River (french: Rivière aux Brochets) is a tributary of

lake Champlain Lake Champlain ( ; french: Lac Champlain) is a natural freshwater lake in North America. It mostly lies between the US states of New York and Vermont, but also extends north into the Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. The New York portion of t ...

(via Missisquoi Bay), flowing successively in: *

Franklin County, Vermont Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,946. Its county seat is the city of St. Albans. It borders the Canadian province of Quebec. The county was created in 1792 and organ ...

, in northern

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

(United States); and * the municipalities of

Frelighsburg Frelighsburg is a municipality in the Estrie region of southern Quebec, Canada, on the border with Vermont. It is at the foot of Mount Pinnacle, part of the Appalachian Mountains. Administratively, it is within the Brome-Missisquoi Regional Coun ...

, Stanbridge East,

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

, Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, Pike River (the eponymous municipality) and Saint-Armand, in Brome-Missisquoi, in the administrative region of

Montérégie Montérégie () is an administrative region in the southwest part of Quebec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Châteauguay, Longueuil, Saint-Hyacinthe, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Vaudreuil-Dorion. ...

, in the south of

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. Besides the village areas, agriculture and forestry are the main economic activities in this valley. The river surface is generally frozen from mid-December to the end of March. Safe traffic on the ice is generally from late December to early March. The water level of the river varies with the seasons and the precipitation.

Geography

Frelighsburg rivière aux Brochets en amont du moulin Freligh

The stream's source is in Quebec on the south side of Mount Pinacle. After flowing into Vermont it receives the outflow of

Lake Carmi Lake Carmi is a small and relatively shallow lake located in the town of Franklin, in the northwest corner of Vermont, United States. It is the fourth largest lake located entirely within Vermont, and has a surface area, an average depth of and ...

and flows back into Quebec for the remainder of its course. The main town of the watershed is

but the municipalities of Saint-Armand, Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge, Pike River (the eponymous municipality) and

. Its course, about sixty kilometers long, oriented to the north, is mainly located in Quebec. More than 85% of its watershed, i.e. , is thus located on the territory of the Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality in the south of the

From Carmi Lake, the river flows north to the Canada - United States border. From the border, the river flows north to Selby Creek (coming from the northeast); then 1.4 km north-west to the village bridge at

. North of the border, the river crosses a series of falls and rapids) interspersed with long, slow-flowing sections, crossing

, Stanbridge East and

before leaving the

Appalachians The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

to reach the plain of St. Lawrence Lowlands. A series of close falls are contained by five dams. Further downstream, the course of the river becomes winding, making a long detour via Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, then crossing the last rapids at Pike River to finish its course through swampy forests. The Brochets River is a tributary of the northeast shore of Missisquoi Bay in

.Atlas of Canada from the Department of Natural Resources Canada - Characteristics extracted from the geographic map, the database and site instrumentation - accessed on = May 10, 2020.
/ref> The main watershed municipality is

but the municipalities of Saint-Armand, Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge, Pike River and

are also included.

Toponymy

Formerly, this river was designated by its English version "Pike river". The toponym "Rivière aux Brochets" was formalized on December 5, 1968, at the Commission de toponymie du Québec.Commission de toponymie du Québec - Bank of place names - Toponym: "Rivière aux Brochets"
/ref>

Ecology

The mouth of Rivière-aux-Brochets is a biological reserve. Until the late 2000s, however, the water in the bay was stagnant and the bay was dying, contaminating large American portions of the lake confined by the numerous embankments of disused railways (Carry Bay, The Gut, Sandbar State Park, Allen Point.) When the new bridge opened on the American side between East Alburg and Lakewood, the old road on the dyke was partially demolished, which made it possible, during the spring breakup and during heavy rains, a certain flow of water to "Grand Lac Champlain" ( - from there). In September 2014, the UPA's media body "La Terre de chez nous" reported that blue-green algae was contaminating the Bedford water treatment plant. With global warming, this problem tends to become recurrent. It is likely to worsen as long as the flow remains slowed down by the railway rights-of-way or until it is evacuated artificially, for example by connecting the outlet of the McPhee stream (at the limit of Clarenceville and Venice-in-Quebec) with the South River further north, some away. This excavation could give rise to a small navigation channel to allow boaters to get to the Richelieu River without passing through the United States.

References

External links

pages.usherbrooke.ca/osmedal/Brochets.htm
{{in lang, fr Rivers of Montérégie Rivers of Vermont International rivers of North America Bodies of water of Franklin County, Vermont Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality

Geography

Toponymy

Ecology

See also

References

External links