Are Liard Hot Springs cooling off? First Nations researchers tracking possible temperature changes

One of the most popular hot springs in northeastern B.C. appears to be cooling off — or at the very least feeling that way — according to First Nations researchers who have been taking the temperature of the popular spot off the Alaska Highway.

Located between Fort Nelson and Whitehorse, the Liard Hot Springs are a major tourist draw  that have soothed road-weary travellers for generations.

Recently, members of the Daylu Dena Council in Lower Post, on whose traditional territories the waters are, have noticed that the pools feel cooler than they used to.

That's possibly because the water flowing into them has changed.

"If you go to the hot springs, you can see all in the main pool now there's water coming in from the sides, and it's cold water that's coming into the pools," Tanya Ball, a member of the First Nation, told CBC Yukon.

Ball is also the technical co-ordinator of the Dena Keyah Institute, the environmental arm of the Daylu Dena Council, which researches land, water, plants and animals within the First Nation's traditional territory.

She says the institute partnered with the province in 2023 to install temperature logging devices in several areas of the hot springs to investigate what might be happening.

Ball says early data suggests the geothermal ground source of the hot springs hasn't changed, where temperatures have held steady around 50 C.

However, she says there are several cold water streams in the area above the hot springs, which appear to be flowing differently than they have in the past.

"It's like they've changed their direction," said Ball. "I think that's where a lot of people are seeing the temperature fluctuations, is from the cold water springs coming in."

B.C. Parks says on its website that the hot spring open to the public, called the alpha pool, has water temperatures ranging between 42 C and 52 C.

The hot springs are open to the public from May 1 to Sept. 30 every year.

Too early to draw conclusions

Ball says it's too early to draw conclusions about why the changes are happening, or what it might mean.

The institute collects data from the temperature loggers every four months and shares it with the province, while also adding to the First Nation's own water quality database.

"They connect to our phones through Bluetooth, and it downloads the data," the researcher said.

However, Ball says one ongoing challenge has been keeping curious bathers from removing the logging devices from the pools.

"We've had some problems with the logger being in the main pool, people taking it out, or just wondering what it is, so we don't have one in the main pool right now," she said.

"We need to figure out ways that we can install them where they'll be of out of the way and people aren't getting curious about what they are."

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