Mossy River is a river in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. The river's source is east of

Little Bear Lake Little Bear Lake is a lake in the boreal forest ecozone in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The lake is in a hilly plateau called Cub Hills and the landforms, such as the lakes and streams, of the Cub Hills were formed over 10,000 years ...

and north-east of Narrow Hills Provincial Park in a hilly plateau called Cub Hills. The river travels through hills,

boreal forest Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by pinophyta, coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. I ...

, and

muskeg Muskeg (; ; , lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal ecosystem, boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bogland, bog or peatland, and is a standard te ...

for about 100 kilometres en route to its mouth in the Saskatchewan River Delta. Highway 920 is the only road to access the mainstem of the river and there are no communities nor settlements along the course of the river.

Description

Mossy River begins at a small lake in the Cub Hills, just east of Little Bear Lake. Over 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, the retreating glaciers shaped the

landform A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement ...

s of the Cub Hills forming the valleys, lakes, and streams. The Mossy River flows east out of the hills through a glacier formed valley and into flatter land characterised by

and boreal forest. The river meets Highway 920 as it flows out of the hills and is then met by Scarth River. From the Cub Hills, the river travels in a south-easterly direction, being met by several other tributaries, including McDougal Creek, South Mossy River, and Brougham Creek, on its way to one of North America's largest inland fresh water deltas, the Saskatchewan River Delta.

Brook trout

Brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...

were successfully introduced to Mossy River in 1979 and became naturalised. Brook trout were first introduced to the Cub Hills in 1934 with the stocking of McDougal Creek, a tributary of Mossy River, and Lost Echo Creek. Since then, the fish have been introduced to 25 rivers in the hills with five of those rivers now supporting populations of naturalised, self-sustaining feral brook trout. The other rivers include Nipekamew Creek and White Gull Creek. All seven of Saskatchewan's trout species can be found in the Cub Hills.

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Saskatchewan Tributaries of Hudson Bay Northern Saskatchewan Administration District Saskatchewan River

Description

Brook trout

See also

References