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If you have any questions on the information presented, or require additional report data or attachments, please contact the Report Contact
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The Okanagan IFPA initiated a mule deer winter range research project in 2001 to identify winter forage and cover features required specifically by Okanagan TSA populations. Current management guidelines, developed elsewhere in the province are not directly applicable to the climate and variable terrain characteristics of the Okanagan. The relative importance of forage to cover should be determined for Okanagan Valley populations, where terrain may already provide thermal and escape features.
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Author: Cascadia Natural Resource Consultants Inc.; Okanagan Innovative Forestry Society; Government of British Columbia Forest Investment Account;
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Date Published: Mar 2007
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Report ID: 10814
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Audience: Government and Public
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Retention management for snow interception and thermal cover may be unnecessary in steep, low snowpack, and mild climatic regions, at the expense of forage quality. Furthermore, Douglas-fir needle diet composition may be higher than quality browse due to fire suppression. Prescriptions that combine variable retention with burning are planned to test the effects on forage abundance and quality. Treatment effects will be determined by assessing forage versus cover use and diet composition at a large cutblock level; in future, results could be applied to a landscape context to develop and investigate experimental mosaics.
Study areas were selected from an original proposed list of 8 potential sites to 3 dry forest ecosystems at Trout Creek, near Penticton, Paxton, near Westwold, and Lambly on TFL49. Pre-treatment sampling has been completed at these sites with Trout Creek being the first site scheduled for experimental harvest by Gorman Bros. Lumber Ltd., upon completion of Mountain Pine Beetle salvage, which has temporarily put the three original treatment sites on hold.
The Southern Interior of British Columbia experienced an extreme wildfire season in the summer of 2003. In total, 37,000 ha of Crown forest burned in a catastrophic fire. In particular, the Okanagan Mtn Fire and the Cedar Hills fire occurred in areas identified in the Mule Deer winter range boundary and within the same moderate snow pack zones as the other study areas in the project. Reconnaissance results in Year 3, 2003-04, led to both areas being included in the study. Cedar Hills was salvaged at variable levels of retention in winter 2003-2004, and Okanagan Mt Park has provided a control since it will not be salvaged. In project year 4, 2004-05, the first year of post-treatment habitat assessment (summer and winter sampling) and winter use were completed at the Cedar Hills and Okanagan Mt Park burn sites. Pellet group plots were completed during May 2004 at Paxton, Lambly, and Trout Creek, as well as preliminary plots at Cedar Hills and Okanagan Mt Park. In Project year 5, 2005-06, habitat assessments (summer and winter sampling) were only conducted in Cedar Hills and Okanagan Mt Park. In Project year 6, 2006-07, winter sampling was only conducted in Cedar Hills.
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Report Type
Subject
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Mammals - Mule Deer: Odocoileus hemionus |
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Region - Okanagan |
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Terrestrial Information - Habitat Monitoring |
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