Riparian Ecosystems and Fish Habitat in the Nichyeskwa - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Title: Riparian Ecosystems and Fish Habitat in the Nichyeskwa
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Riparian Ecosystems and Fish Habitat in the
Nichyeskwa
- BWMT 2005-1
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Introduction
- Collect indicator data on the status of riparian
forest - Reduce uncertainty about blowdown in natural and
managed riparian forest - Locate paired reaches for future monitoring
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Design
- 6 sub-basins
- Three phases
- Existing GIS data
- New remote data
- New field data
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Existing GIS data methods
- Classify streams
- Order
- Gradient
- Width
- BEC subzone
- Calculate age-class distribution in natural
riparian forest - Calculate age-class distribution in natural and
managed forest
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Existing GIS data methods
- Over 300 reaches
- Over 3,000 ha of forest
- 60-m GIS buffer for analysis
- Most streams either small, steep in ESSFmc or
small, gentle in SBSmc2
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Existing GIS data results
Most natural riparian forest is old (SBS 73 over
140 years ESSF 91 over 140 years)
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Existing GIS data results
- Small gentle streams in SBS were most affected by
harvesting (11 27 harvested) - Most stream types lt 5 riparian forest logged
- Fish streams 8 forest logged
- Operational maps changed estimates very slightly
(i.e. few buffers within blocks) - Current risk is LOW (i.e. proportion old does not
deviate more than 30 from natural)
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New remote data methods
- Update buffer status
- Verify existing data
4 sub-basins
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New remote data results
- Very little blowdown
- Still photos give great record
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(No Transcript)
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New remote data results
Canopy cover matches existing data well Snags did
not correlate well with canopy cover
(insufficient data)
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mounding
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New field data methods
- Determine reliability of remote data
- Test methods for linking blowdown and canopy cover
11 plots 10 x 50m
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New field data results
- Some recently-fallen trees in buffers none in
natural riparian forest - detected low levels not detectable remotely
- 20-m buffer
- similar structure to control (live and dead
trees) - 5-m buffer
- variesone very different structure one similar
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Conclusions
- Current levels of harvesting pose low risk to
riparian forest and fish habitat - Blowdown poses very low risk in the Nichyeskwa
- Existing data describe riparian forest well
- If no blowdown
- If few within-block buffers
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Recommend for Babine
- Use existing remote data to check other
sub-basinssufficient for monitoring IF - Blowdown is similar
- Few in-block buffers
- Check blowdown elsewhere (flight)
- If blowdown is higher, investigate relationship
between blowdown and canopy cover (field study) - Monitor paired plots each 10 years
- Check hydrology in mounded cutblocks
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Investigate functionality?
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Disturbance
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