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The Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy (GBCS) was launched by the government of British Columbia in June, 1995 and is intended to be a comprehensive approach to the conservation of this vulnerable species. Elements of the GBCS include: 1) a commitment to establish Grizzly Bear Management Areas where grizzly bear hunting will be restricted and where habitat and access issues will be addressed through land use planning, 2) the creation of an independent Grizzly Bear Scientific Advisory Committee, 3) increased research and inventory of grizzly bear populations and habitat, 4) improved hunting regulations, 5) increased enforcement, 6) increased penalties for poaching and trading in bear parts, 7) a comprehensive educational program, 8) reducing conflicts between people and grizzly bears and 9) partnerships with the private sector to raise funds for grizzly bear conservation...
Austin, M.A.. 1999. British Columbia's Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy: Progress to Date and Future Directions (in Proc. Conference Biology & Management of Species and Habitats at Risk). Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks. Conference Biology & ManagementProceedings. Vol. 2
During 2 winters we investigated the influence of transportation corridors on wolverine (Gulo gulo) movements through snow-tracking. Analysis of movements within the study area showed avoidance use of areas within 100 m of the Trans-Canada Highway and preference for areas >1100 m from the highway. Analysis of movements on the ski trail that formed the boundary of the study area showed a similar trend with avoidance of sections of the trail within 200 m of the highway and preference for sections >1100 m away. Mean width of the right-of-way for highway crossings by wolverines (68 m) was significantly shorter than that of approaches without crossing (165 m). Wolverines approaching the highway made repeated approaches and retreats and only crossed 3 out of 6 times. Wolverines did not hesitate to cross the Canadian Pacific Railway in areas where it does not share a common right-of-way with the highway. Our results indicate that Kicking Horse Pass is an important movement corridor for wolverines, however...
Austin, M.A., Herrero, S.; Paquet, P.. 1999. Wolverine Winter Travel Routes and Response to Transportation Corridors in Kicking Horse Pass Between Yoho and Banff National Parks (in Proc. Conference Biology & Management of Species and Habitats at Risk). Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks; University College of the Cariboo. Conference Biology & ManagementProceedings
Most of our knowledge and focus on rare and endangered species in British Columbia is on the large, furry or feathery animals and on leafy plants. We are just beginning to recognize that some local marine invertebrates and seaweeds may be at risk. Approximately 50 species of rarely seen invertebrates were identified for the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre (CDC). Some of these are at the edge of their range or in special habitats in British Columbia, and are common elsewhere. Others are known from only 1 or 2 sites in the province, and are rare or apparently absent in other parts of the world’s seas. They occur in a variety of habitats ranging from intertidal lagoons to the depths of fjords, to offshore hydrothermal vents. Amateur naturalists and divers, as well as specialists, have played a role in identifying habitats where some of these animals occur.
Austin, William C.. 1999. Rare and Endangered Marine Invertebrates in British Columbia (in Proc. Conference Biology & Management of Species and Habitats at Risk). Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks; University College of the Cariboo. Conference Biology & ManagementProceedings
Author, New. 9999. Research Note 054. British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. Research Note (FLNRORD). RN54
The objective of this project was to compile a dataset on stream and riparian functioning condition in Vanderhoof Forest District?s unmanaged forests in order to provide a baseline reference for effectiveness monitoring comparisons, and more specifically, for those indicators listed in the BC Forest and Range Evaluation Program?s Riparian Management Routine Effectiveness Evaluations (RMREE). The call for this study arose from the history of repeated downgrading of the functioning condition of harvested reaches that could be attributed to fine sediment, and the suggestion that similar conditions existed at unmanaged reaches. This project set out to quantify natural conditions and statistically relate these to harvested sites so that the end result would more accurately reflect impacts due to harvesting.
After the field data collection and analyses phases were completed, a number of MS Excel spreadsheets were created with embedded calculations to effectively predict new threshold values for attributes that were thought to be influenced by the natural occurrence of fine sediments in the Vanderhoof Forest District. The indicators represented by these attributes include:
1) fine sediments,
2) windthrow,
3) fish cover,
4) moss, and
5) aquatic invertebrate diversity.
The calculations created for predicting threshold values were based on relationships between the attributes and physical site characteristics at non-harvested reaches. The site characteristics included:
1) soil erodibility,
2) channel width,
3) channel gradient,
4) aspect,
5) elevation, and
6) hillslope (coupling).
Data from 31 MoFR sites that had been previously classified as functioning at risk, functioning at high risk, and not properly functioning were re-assessed using the new threshold values specific to each site. Results suggest an upgrade in the functioning condition for 29% of the sites, and a
downgrade in 6% of the sites. The upgraded sites were recommended because the harvested attribute data for the fine sediment, moss, and fish cover indicators fell within the range of natural variability as judged by the new threshold values. The downgraded sites were mainly a result of new higher thresholds for three of the aquatic invertebrate attributes. Field data could not meet these thresholds in several of these cases, resulting in an overall increase in negative responses for the aquatic invertebrate indicator. While this change could represent a more accurate reflection of harvesting impacts, it also may be a result of seasonal variation in flow and related processes between the non-harvested and harvested sampling events.
Avison Management Services Ltd.. 2010. Improving a standard monitoring protocol for use in Central-Interior British Columbia. Forest Investment Account (FIA) - Forest Science Program. Forest Investment Account Report. FIA2010MR157
Topic: FLNRORD Research Program
Series: Forest Investment Account Report
Keywords: Forest, Investment, Account, (FIA), Land, Base, Investment, Program
The purpose of this project will be to identify candidate Lodgepole pine leading stands for rehabilitation and reclamation located in the Vanderhoof Forest District. This project will take direction from the PGTSA Type 2 Silviculture Plan and design and develop a implementation plan consisting of a list of candidate blocks, current stand conditions and a priority ranking for reclamation operations. The ranking process will involve weighting economic, social, and ecological criteria associated with the current standing and the proposed replacement plantations.
This project is a continuing project, with the final two phases being completed this fiscal.
Completion of old forest and old interior forest retention risk assessments and recruitment strategies, for 6 natural disturbance/ merged biogeoclimatic units. Work involves working with forest licensees and BCTS, GIS analysis and report writing.
The Licensee Landscape Objectives Working Group (LLOWG) for the Prince George Timber Supply Area (PG TSA) has established specific biodiversity objectives in order to incorporate government directives with regard to old forest and old interior forest retention. As a result of the establishment of these objectives, a risk assessment of old forest retention and old interior forest retention per natural disturbance unit (NDU)/merged biogeoclimatic (merged BEC) unit within the PG TSA was undertaken. Of the 49 merged BEC units assessed, it was determined that recruitment strategies would be undertaken on 17 units as the objectives were at risk of not being met in these units. This document contains a summary of the risk assessment completed on each NDU/merged BEC unit for the PG TSA and the 17 draft recruitment strategies for those units deemed to be at risk of not achieving their old forest and/or old interior forest retention objectives. The individual draft recruitment strategies for each of those NDU/merged BEC units is attached to this document. This document is part of an ongoing process, with several merged BEC units requiring additional input from Licensees. The strategies should be considered draft at this time with the intent that the Licensees operating within each merged BEC unit will finalize and sign off these strategies in the near future. Unlike spatial Old Growth Management Areas that do not move over time, the recruitment strategies developed in this document are aspatial in nature. This approach facilitates flexibility and professional judgment in determining how Licensees will meet the old forest objectives. This means representative old forest may move and change over time, provided the Licensees are accountable in meeting their obligation. By drafting the objectives in an aspatial context, more time, effort and coordination is required by Licensees. However, this additional effort results in more flexibility and provides effective strategies that meet landscape level biodiversity objectives.
prepared by Avison Management Services Ltd.
Avison Management Services Ltd.. 2007. Risk assessment and recruitment strategy for old forest retention and old interior forest in the Prince George timber supply area. Forest Investment Account (FIA) - Forest Science Program. Forest Investment Account Report. FIA2007MR137
As a natural agent of disturbance, mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreaks play an important functional role in directing ecological processes and maintaining biological diversity of forest ecosystems (Roe & Amman 1970, Veblen et al. 1991). However, having infested 9.2 million hectares of lodgepole pine forests to date (BC Ministry of Forests and Range 2007) the current beetle outbreak is unprecedented in scale.
As lodgepole pine comprises around one quarter of the provincial timber supply, socioeconomic impacts of this outbreak are enormous. A variety of silvicultural tools and management strategies can be used to reduce the effects of timber losses, the most important tool being salvage logging. In the short-term, adjusting harvest scheduling to remove standing beetle-killed trees can compensate some of the timber losses. However, due to market, operational, legal, and ecological constraints, the proportion of the beetle-killed forests that can be salvage-logged is limited.
As the outbreak continues, and especially after its eventual collapse, forest managers will need to develop strategies to manage the large areas left unsalvaged. For this they will need to quantify the basic stand dynamics processes associated with MPB outbreaks, such as level of tree mortality by age class, post-outbreak stand growth, recruitment rates and species composition following MPB outbreaks. Currently, this information is scant and our ability to estimate the long-term impacts of beetle outbreaks on BC forests is, therefore, limited. Fundamental to achieving the goal of sustainable forest management in areas infested by MPB, are reliable decision support tools, such as stand and whole forest dynamics models that incorporate the impacts of beetle outbreaks into forecasts of future stand conditions and projections of future timber supply (Mitchell 1975, Mitchell & Cameron 1985, Goudie et al. 2005). However, we still lack the information necessary to reliably implement these tools in some forests, particularly uneven-aged lodgepole pine forests.
This proposed research is aimed at understanding and quantifying how unsalvaged stands will develop following MPB attacks in the Cariboo region of central BC. For this we propose, in the first year of research, to re-measure a number of existing permanent plots in the Chilcotin Plateau, to determine past disturbance history of the area (fire and previous beetle outbreaks) and assess current beetle impacts. These plots are unique in the Province of BC, in that they have been maintained for 20 years (since 1988). In the second year we will project future stand development using the BC Ministry of Forests TASS model.
In 1987, during the previous (1980s) MPB outbreak, the CFS established 10 plots in each of 30 stands in the Chilcotin Plateau, to determine beetle impacts. In 2001, 15 of these stands were re-measured for growth impacts, mortality, and succession following the 1980s MPB outbreak. Unfortunately, logging and wildfires eliminated the possibility of re-measuring the remaining stands. These stands are now undergoing yet another MPB outbreak. In this project we propose to re-measure all remaining plots (a 21-year re-measurement) and, using these data, estimate future growth of the residual stands and regeneration, and analyze and model the future stand structure and species composition of these stands.
The stands to be studied are located in the heart of the current MPB outbreak, in the Chilcotin Plateau range, and consist of even-aged and uneven-aged, complex stands in the Sub Boreal Pine-Spruce (SBPS) and Interior Douglas-fir (IDF) BEC zones.
Currently, there is a knowledge gap in our understanding succession and growth in beetle impacted areas, and there is uncertainty regarding the growth and release of advance regeneration in unsalvaged MPB-attacked stands (Griesbauer & Green 2006). To fill this gap, we will use the techniques of dendrochronology to develop in-depth stand histo ...
Axelson, Jodi N., Alfaro, René I.; Hawkes, Brad; VanAkker, Lara; Riel, Bill; Di Lucca, C. Mario; Goudie, James W.; Polsson, Ken R.; Cameron, Ian R.. 2010. Future productivity of lodgepole pine stands following mountain pine beetle outbreaks. Forest Investment Account (FIA) - Forest Science Program. Forest Investment Account Report. FIA2010MR280
Topic: FLNRORD Research Program
Series: Forest Investment Account Report
Keywords: Forest, Investment, Account, (FIA), British, Columbia
During 2007-2008 year we will adhere to the original plan. Project is on schedule. In year one we collected and analyzed stand dynamics data for even-aged stands. In the second year we will re-locate original CFS plots, conduct field work to obtain stand reconstruction data, summarize field data, describe stand dynamics of even-aged stands following beetle outbreaks, run preliminary stand models for uneven age stands, compare results between even and un-even aged stands in terms of stand dynamics and model simulation results, prepare decision support indicating future yield under different beetle scenarios, and will produce a final report.
Axelson, Jodi N., Alfaro, René I.; Hawkes, Brad; Shore, Terence L.. 2008. Stand dynamics following mountain pine beetle outbreaks in central British Columbia. Forest Investment Account (FIA) - Forest Science Program. Forest Investment Account Report
Topic: FLNRORD Research Program
Series: Forest Investment Account Report
Keywords: Forest, Investment, Account, (FIA), British, Columbia
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