A Riske Creek rancher said he continues to see bank erosion at his ranch after the Chilcotin River landslide.
The slide, which occurred on around midnight July 30, was directly below Ilnicki Ranch owned by Ken and Debbie Ilnicki since 1985.
It created a natural dam, measuring 1,000 metres long and 30 metres high, which held back water and formed a large lake about 10 kilometres long.
Water from the lake began to work its way through the dam on Monday morning, Aug. 5.
"So all the banks, pretty well up to the high water mark sloughed in big time," Ken told Efteen Tuesday, Aug. 13.
He explained they did not lose any hay fields, but where all the banks were sloughing previously they did so more after the water started to move through.
A lake is still in place behind the dam which he estimated was still about two kilometres long.
"It's slowly eating its way through there and it looks like the fish can probably make it now," he said of the salmon that are expected to arrive in the Chilcotin River anytime. "But the water is pretty dirty. I don't know if they are in there or not."
He said the water in the river has cleared up a bit, although not closer to the slide. Upstream about five to six kilometres it is clear.
Where the water is flowing over the dam, the dam is still almost five metres high, yet lower than it was a week ago.
During the landslide and subsequent days waiting for the water to break through, the ranch was busy with people on site monitoring and observing.
Things have quieted down and the last time anyone was there doing that was on Thursday, Aug. 8, with the exception of a helicopter flyover Sunday and Monday.
"The damage here will probably be more next year than it is right now," Ken said. "The banks off our fields will start falling in once the river finds it course."
Before the 2017 wildfires, the Ilnickis pumped water at two different spots in the Chilcotin River to water the hay fields.
"We never did rebuild them but now they washed out even more," he said, adding with the price of fuel it was not worth investing in the infrastructure.
Irrigation they do have draws water from creeks and this year's hay crop is looking "pretty good," he said.
They will hay the first of September, but will have to stay back from the river bank in a few places just to be safe.
During a flyover Ken noticed up river of the landslide where trees remain standing, there was debris and fairly big logs on top of other trees.
"Some of those trees were 60 feet tall and they got trees all stuck in their branches."
