Fraser River

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For other uses of this name see Fraser River (disambiguation).

The Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, Canada, rising near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for 1,400 km (870 mi), into the Pacific Ocean at the city of Vancouver. The estuary at the river's mouth is a site of hemispheric importance in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network.

Geography

The Fraser drains a 220,000 km² (85,000 sq mi) area. Its headwaters are near Yellowhead Pass, and for the first part of its course it runs northwest, reaching past 54° north before making a sharp turn to the south. At the city of Prince George it is joined by the Nechako River, then continues south and slightly east. It is joined by the Thompson River at Lytton, where it proceeds south until it is approximately 40 km (25 mi) north of the 49th parallel, which is Canada's border with the United States. It then issues from the Coast Mountains from a deep canyon (the Fraser Canyon) about 270 km (170 mi) long. The river then turns west through a lush lowland valley, known as the Fraser Valley, past Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Mission and the eastern suburbs of Vancouver.

After 100 kilometres (about 60 mi), it forms a delta where it empties into the Strait of Georgia between the mainland and Vancouver Island. The lands south of the City of Vancouver, including the cities of Richmond and Delta sit on the flat flood plain. The islands of the delta include Iona Island, Sea Island, Lulu Island, Annacis Island, and a number of smaller islands. While the vast majority of the river's drainage basin lies within British Columbia, a small portion in the delta area lies across the international border in Washington in the United States.

The river's volume at its mouth is 112 km³ (27 cu mi) each year (about 800,000 gal/s or 3550 cubic metres per second), and it dumps 20 million tons of sediment into the ocean. It is the tenth longest river in Canada.

History

On June 14, 1792, the Spanish explorers Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdes entered and anchored in the north arm of the Fraser River, becoming the first Europeans to find and enter it.

The upper reaches of the Fraser River were first explored by Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1793, and fully traced by Simon Fraser in 1807, who confirmed that it was not connected with the Columbia River.

Much of British Columbia's history has been bound to the Fraser, partly because it was the essential route between the Interior and the Lower Coast after the loss of the lands south of the 49th Parallel with the Oregon Treaty of 1846. It was the site of its first recorded settlements of Aboriginal people (see , St'at'imc and Nlaka'pamux), the route of multitudes of prospectors during the gold rush and the main vehicle of the province's early commerce and industry.

This river has been designated a Canadian Heritage River for its natural and human heritage.

Uses

The Fraser is heavily exploited by human activities, especially in its lower reaches. Its banks are rich farmland, its water is used by pulp mills, and a few dams on some tributaries provide hydroelectric power. The main flow of the Fraser has never been dammed so as not to interfere with salmon spawning. Today, Fraser Herald at the Canadian Heraldic Authority is named after the river. In 1958, the Fraser River and surrounding areas were occupied when the gold rush came to the Fraser Canyon and the Fraser River.

The delta of the river, especially in the Boundary Bay area, is an important stopover location for migrating shorebirds

Flooding

Due to record snowpacks on the mountains in the Fraser River catch basin which began melting, combined with heavy rainfall, water levels on the Fraser River rose in 2007 to a level not reached since 1972. Low-lying land in areas upriver such as Prince George suffered minor flooding. Evacuation alerts were given for the low-lying areas not protected by dikes in the Lower Mainland. However, the water levels did not breach the dikes, and major flooding was averted.

Major tributaries

References

External links

Map and photographs

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Last updated on Sunday March 09, 2008 at 08:15:16 PDT (GMT -0700)
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