Harvesting Practices and Mountain Goat Habitat in the Babine Watershed A Background Review Prepared...
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Transcript of Harvesting Practices and Mountain Goat Habitat in the Babine Watershed A Background Review Prepared...
Harvesting Practices and Mountain Goat Habitat in the Babine Watershed
A Background Review
Prepared for: By:
Megan D’Arcy, R.P.Bio.
Introduction Goal to maintain mountain goats Two objectives:
Maintain goat habitat Maintain goat populations
Preliminary risk curve analyses identified knowledge gaps for the Kispiox (now West Babine)
Objective of background review ~ to determine if new data are available to update the monitoring framework
Since then… Both the West Babine SRMP area and the
Bulkley now have management areas identified for goats
An effectiveness monitoring protocol has been developed and tested for mountain goat ungulate winter range Pilot project study areas in Okanagan-
Shuswap & Sunshine Coast Forest Districts
Habitat Management UWR polygons have been identified under FRPA for
the Kispiox/Cranberry TSA These polygons were delineated based on work completed
by Ardea Biological Consulting (2005) Pacific Inland Resources has completed their Forest
Stewardship Plan Mapped Habitat and an associated management strategies
have been identified for mountain goats FSP incorporates Bulkley LRMP: Objectives Set by
Government (2006)
Goat management areas in the Babine Watershed
Shenismike
Gail Creek
Table 2. Mountain goat habitat management for the BWMT area as set out in the FSP for PIR and the UWR Order for the Kispiox/Cranberry TSA.
West Babine Bulkley
Forest Harvesting Activities
Within UWR/ Mapped Habitat
-Retention of all forest cover & vegetation within UWR polygon-Felling of trees is permitted when required for worker safety
-Provide thermal and snow interception cover and forage-Provide security by limiting disturbance-Provide forested cover adjacent to escape terrain
Buffers -500 m horizontal distance-Within 500 m, should not “result in material or adverse disturbance to goats”
-Harvesting within 200 m of Mapped Habitat will be done with non-clearcutting system or with cutblocks < 5 ha
-2000 meters line of site for helicopter logging
Timing of Harvesting Activities
-June 15 to October 31 window
-No harvesting within 200 m of Mapped Habitat from April 15 to July 15
Roads -Deactivated if within 500 m of UWR polygon
-All roads within one kilometre of Mapped Habitat will be deactivated and access control points used to limit motorized access
Effectiveness Monitoring No additional effectiveness monitoring work
has been done within the Babine Watershed A three-tiered evaluation structure has been
designed by FREP (intended to be used as a standard for effectiveness evaluations)
Adapted and tested by Steve Wilson, EcoLogic Research, for mountain goats
Indicators for Maintaining Goat Habitat in Current Monitoring Framework
Type and patch-size distribution of harvest within 200 m of identified goat habitat
Presence of forested connectors between mountain ranges in Kotsine Pass
Both are more applicable to the Bulkley TSA.
Current Indicators for Maintaining Goat Populations
Density of accessible roads within one kilometre of identified habitat
Amount of harvesting within 200 m of habitat during natal time (May to early June)
Natal period is not only time when goats are vulnerable – most habitat management targets winter survival
Other Potential Indicators (Wilson 2005)
Proportion of established UWR relative to available suitable UWR - once
Forest Cover Characteristics – every 5 yrs Forage Availability – every 5 yrs Snow Depth & Consolidation – weather dependent Evidence of Sustained Winter Use by Goats – 3 yrs
Could be monitored by recreation user reports Evidence of Movement Among Winter Ranges
Incorporation into Existing Framework Estimated risk for West Babine (Kispiox) can
be updated based on data collected by Ardea (2005) Percentage of area currently harvested, Potential level of harvest (%)
Could incorporate additional indicators developed by Wilson (2006)
Recommendations Review and update mapping data for entire
Babine Watershed Add an ‘indices of use’ indicator to the
current monitoring framework Use mapping and field surveys to document
and collect use data for important trails and mineral licks
Potential Project for 2008Create goat habitat database
and analyse existing data Collect different data layers Clean and compile data Define parameters (see
spreadsheet) Analyse data and use to
generate new risk curves Write report
Project Initialization $ 640
Mapping (GeoBorealis) & Analysis (K. Price)
$ 4,500
Report Writing $ 1,600
GST $ 337
Total Cost $ 7, 077
Ministry of Environment has expressed interest in potentially partnering with BWMT
Road proximity analysis (proposed - FIA)
Advantages The result of this project (spatial database)
could potentially be used for other BWMT initiatives
Partnering with MOE would facilitate: Access to the mapping layers Cost sharing
Other Considerations Without the indices of use data, the mapping
results only tell one side of the story BWMT allocate some money for proposal writing
($ 1, 600) Building on the idea of partnering with MOE as
part of the proposal process Collect ad hoc data from flights in and out of
Silver Hilton ($ ??)
In a Perfect World… Conduct a combination of aerial and ground surveys
to determine relative use Expensive – potential FIA project? More of a priority in
the West Babine During relative use surveys, collect
Forage availability data Snow depth and consolidation data
Infer “material and adverse disturbance to goats” (UWR Order) from indices of use data & forest harvesting/road analysis