EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Vancouver Lake

Vancouver Lake
Vancouver, Washington, USA

Explanation:  On an overcast flight out of Portland International Airport in Oregon, USA, we skimmed the border with Washington state to the north, revealing this fine scene of Vancouver Lake.

Vancouver Lake, named after the city of Vancouver, Washington, consists of a 190-acre (77-ha) regional park established for warmwater fishing and other urban recreation.  Although some 90 miles or so to the Pacific Ocean coastline, the lake is surprisingly affected by tides that influence the adjacent Columbia River, and the surface can vary by as much as two feet (0.6 m), a significant proportion of its mere 8-foot (2.4-m) depth.  The lake also has a surprising 16 species of fish that are all catchable.  

It is the largest lake in the Vancouver-Portland metropolitan area, and in times past it was much deeper, being fed from the Columbia River, before the building of a series of dams on the river that constrained its levels.