Newsome Creek continues to be in a dynamic state. Over the winter trees have fallen in the ravine. The CSRD has initiated more monitoring as the banks slough and silt enters the stream bed. One event last week involved about 2 cubic metres of material, and it occurred while monitoring was taking place. The geo-technical engineer doing the monitoring said, “failure tends to be sudden,” with no advanced warning.
A new development in the creek is the freeze thaw effect. “Freeze-thaw processes are occurring in exposed areas, which is saturating the near-surface soils and causing some minor liquefaction.” This is a new feature in the erosion process. So much clay and silt has sloughed off in past years allowing freezing and frost to penetrate where it hadn’t before. Its actually lead to some very large trees falling in, taking soil with them.
The geo-tech also warned of two trees near the motel that may fall east, noting they pose a danger to passerby.