Document Details

Title
Caribou habitat in Kootenay Lake landscape units K-17, K-18, K-22, and K-24, Central Selkirk Mountains: mapping and analysis update
Author
Herbison, Brenda
Date
2007
Abstract
This 2007 collation of inventory relevant to mountain caribou provides a tool for translating current government caribou regulations (the Kootenay Boundary Land Use Plan Order Variance 04 (KBHLPO) to individual Landscape Units in the Kootenay Lake Forest District, LUs K-17, K-18, K-22, and K-24, and to smaller, caribou planning (drainage) subunits. The inventory and analysis are relevant for forest licensees in planning for compliance with KBHLPO, or in developing proposed alternatives. Caribou and forest inventory information are mapped and interpreted at two scales (1) landscape-level, using 1: 50,000 scale maps and overlays, and (2) drainage or reconnaissance-level, using 1: 20,000 scale maps and overlays. Stand (plot) level information is supplied for some areas, and gaps in that coverage noted. Government requirements under KBHLPO for each Landscape Unit are identified based on calculations by Kootenay Lake Forest District (Niblett 2006, Anderson 2005), and an effort is made to evaluate implications from the perspective of both caribou and timber interests. Additional old growth retention guidelines under consideration by the Species at Risk Office ( SARCO) are discussed and analysed to the extent possible given the limited information available. The analyses show that Landscape Units K-17, K-18 and K- 22 have ?deficits? in the required area of old growth, and the KBHLP Order (in Appendix A) indicates this means a restriction on harvesting of age class 8/9 and /or a requirement for a recruitment strategy addressing younger age class stands. (The deficit in K-18 / K-22 was greatly exacerbated by the losses to wildfire in 2003 when over 1500 hectares of old growth burned.) In the upper Duncan, K-24, where technically there is a ?surplus? of age class 8/9 beyond minimum KBHLPO requirements, there are questions about actual volume and wood quality, and many stands appear difficult to access without impacting high value caribou habitat. prepared by Brenda Herbison.
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Final Report
Variance Preamble
Appendix A

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