Time to change the channel?

As I was leaving the house the other day I passed another spit resident who was peering out across the lagoon toward the little boathouse across from our property.

"Do you think the channel is getting narrower?" she asked.

I didn't quite know what to respond; we rarely take a boat through the channel, and usually it's just a canoe, so I'm not sure I would notice if it were getting narrower. But, thinking about it, I can't help but remember those floods we had earlier this winter, and all the water that was pouring down of the hillside. I should think the probability would be high that we got an extra dose of silt out of that.





























So I went out to photograph the channel at low tide yesterday afternoon. I don't know what it's supposed to look like, but it did seem there were more chunks of clay on the exposed sand (I saved one: remember the clay babies we used to pick up on Shaw?), and it looked like the shells were buried under a new wash of sand in a few places. I suspect the truth will emerge when more people begin boating again.

I know on the east coast they actually dredge channels like this but I'm not sure what the environmental impact of that might be, or even if that's the best solution. But it does look like that will be another issue for the community to deal with before long...

But hey, wasn't it a GORGEOUS day?