Fraser Canyon Slides & Impacts on Salmon

Landslides can have serious impacts on BC’s communities, infrastructure and transportation routes. Slides can also have serious impacts on waterways — such as how and where rivers flow and how passable they become for fish following a slide.

The project “Landslide impact on flow dynamics, fish migration and genetics of Fraser River salmon” spanned three years (2021-2024). The study focuses on how past and present slides in the Fraser River Canyon have affected river flows and subsequent migrating salmon populations.

There have been sobering recent reminders about the power of landslides. A good example is the Big Bar Slide, discovered on the Fraser River near Clinton in 2019. That slide had obstructed salmon from moving upstream and called for a significant response effort.

The landslides research project wrapped up in 2024. Key findings include:

Analysis of past slide dynamics were used to develop a predictive model of potential future slide activity. There is now opportunity to use the data to inform potential future slide response and possibly mitigate impacts to salmon migration.

A Fraser Landslides research site (SFU) offers details of the project work on landslides, canyons of concern, hydraulics and flow dynamics and salmon migration. Visit the site.

A Year 3 workshop was held in person (in Hope) and online in February 2024, with the Fraser Basin Council leading facilitation. The workshop brought together First Nations, local governments and experts in the field of landslide research to discuss the latest findings in landslide impact on flow dynamics, fish migration and genetics of Fraser River salmon.

Read the Year 3 (2024) and the Year 1 (2022) workshop reports.

SFU’s Fraser Landslides research website sets out the project work on landslides, canyons of concern, hydraulics and flow dynamics and salmon migration, including the Years 1, 2 and 3 project reports. Learn more.

Thanks to the Hakai Institute team members who joined the Fraser Landslides Research team on the river in the summer of 2022. They are helping tell the story of saving the Fraser River salmon from the impacts of future landslides.

FBC has begun work with the Fraser River Discovery Centre to bring the landslides research results and data findings to the public, both adults and youth. The Fraser River Discovery Centre is a two-floor, hands-on interpretive centre in New Westminster that hosts rotating exhibits and programs for all ages.

Watch for more information!

The project was funded by the BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Funded (BCSRIF). It was a collaboration of academia (led out of SFU), First Nations, the federal government (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) and non-profit organizations.

The Fraser Basin Council led project outreach and partnered with the Fraser Salmon Management Council to liaise with Canyon First Nations communities.

The project team is grateful for the funding that have made the project possible as well as in-kind support from Hakai Institute, SFU River Dynamics Laboratory, DFO eWatch and the Big Bar Slide Monitoring Program.