5. Enhancing Environmental Values

5. Enhancing Environmental Values

Executive Summary

The Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks and the Ministry of Forests were contracted by Forest Renewal B.C. to develop a resource management plan for the Prince George Forest Region in 1999. This portion of the resource management plan (RMP) is a revised version of the 1999 plan and summarises the Enhancing Environmental Values (EEV) component.

The EEV portion of the RMP is comprised of five (5) sections:the regional benchmark of watershed priorities as pertaining to water quality and fisheries values including recommended critical watersheds, identification of watersheds where there is insufficient information available to make a determination of their priority status within the region, effectiveness evaluations, a summary of consultation undertaken to develop the RMP and achieve consensus with government and industry stakeholders and recommendations related to the EEV portion of the RMP.

It should be noted that the white sturgeon was not included in the determination of critical or high priority watersheds for the Prince George Forest Region in the 1999 draft. White sturgeon is rare and endangered in British Columbia and is one of the most critical fish species in the Province. However, due to its habitat preference (mainstems of large rivers, e.g. Fraser and Nechako as well as large tributaries to these rivers such as the Bowron River), issues relating to restoration of the habitat and conservation of the species are beyond the scope of this RMP. To avoid confusion, white sturgeon is noted as being a critical fish species, and that its habitats are of the highest priority for protection and conservation. The white sturgeon was considered a critical fish species and included in the management planning of those watersheds where they occurred in the mainstems of tributary rivers (to the Fraser for example) such as the Bowron River.

Forest Renewal B.C.’s strategic objective for the EEV’s WRP component is to restore 20% of the critical watersheds in the Prince George Forest Region by 2005. To identify the critical watersheds required to address this objective, a regional benchmark was developed. The regional benchmark identified 20 watershed units across the Prince George Forest Region for restoration by 2005. The predicted cost over the next 5 years to restore these watersheds is anticipated to be in excess of what Forest Renewal B.C. is going to spend in the EEV program if current annual funding levels are maintained over the next 5 years. Therefore, funding will have to be increased for the program, the percentage of critical watersheds restored by 2005 decreased, or the time frame for completing restoration increased beyond 2005.

The regional benchmark, in the 1999 draft, was also used to identify watersheds requiring Transition funding within the Prince George Forest Region. A Transition Watershed is one where substantial investment in watershed restoration activities has been made by Forest Renewal B.C. to date that does not have sufficient fish or domestic water supply uses to identify it as a critical watershed. Forest Renewal B.C. has indicated that funding for Transition Watersheds will be available in the 2000-2001 fiscal year to wrap up implementation of watershed restoration prescriptions and works in these non-critical watershed units. To date, monies have been spent on these Transition Watersheds within the region thus fulfilling the funding commitment of FRBC. Since not all of the Transition Watersheds could be completed or because some of the works will require maintenance in the years post restoration, FRBC has committed monies to Transition Watersheds equal to 10% of the project value. These monies are described as ‘hotspot’ funding and are to be utilised in the 2001-2002 fiscal year.

Though new assessments are not currently being supported for funding by Forest Renewal B.C., watersheds where insufficient information exists to make a determination of their priority status (category five) were identified. In total 33 watershed units were identified as having insufficient information available to determine their status. When investment is available to fund new assessments, these watersheds should be investigated as a first priority to determine their fish values and need for restoration. These category five watersheds may become the next host of key watersheds to be restored in the five years following this RMP.

In 1999, consultation with government and industry stakeholders was undertaken to ensure that the RMP and its implications for future funding were understood and to achieve consensus for the recommendations coming out of the plan. During the summer of 2000, a formal letter of request was submitted to the Watershed Restoration Technicians in each of the Forest Districts. The intent of the letter was to summon interested parties (licensees, First Nations, stewardship groups, etc) to a RMP review meeting where the content and format of the RMP was discussed. This provided an opportunity for those parties to bring forward any contrary or erroneous data or for the input of ideas, recommendations and new information. The organisation of the meetings and the list of parties invited was the responsibility of the district WRP technicians.

introduction

The Ministry of Forests and Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks were contracted by Forest Renewal BC to deliver an integrated Resource Management Plan (RMP) for each of the three Land Based Program components by September 30, 1999. In 2000, this RMP was put forward to the stakeholders and interested parties for a complete revision of the EEV component of the plan.

Forest Renewal BC. has recently re-focused the strategic objective of the EEV program’s primary component, the Watershed Restoration Program (WRP). The output of the revised objective is to restore fish habitat and or water quality values to 20% of the critical watersheds in the province by 2005. To appreciate this objective, one must understand what is meant by a critical watershed. Forest Renewal BC developed a procedure that allows for a determination of critical watersheds through the development of a regional watershed benchmark. The regional benchmark represents a ranking of watersheds across regional areas based on fish and or water supply values and is summarised in Appendix II of the Forest Renewal BC document: “Resource Planning Framework, Guidelines for the Development of Regional Resource Management Plans 2000/01”.

The requirements of this EEV RMP revision was to review the regional watershed benchmark for the Prince George Forest Region (as established in the 1999 draft), identify watersheds with insufficient information to determine their priority, identify new or previously mis-identified key watersheds, identify the status of WRP projects for each watershed and their associated sub-basins, and consult with government and industry stakeholders regarding the outputs and recommendations of these components. The goal of the consultation process was to achieve consensus with government and industry stakeholders on the outputs and recommendations of the EEV portion of the Prince George Forest Region RMP

To revise the Prince George Forest Region EEV RMP, a committee comprised of John McInnis (Ministry of Environment) and Tim Silbernagel (Ministry of Forests) was struck by the Regional RMP steering committee. The EEV RMP committee was responsible for gathering information required to develop the plan, oversee the recommendations for both transition and critical watersheds, for soliciting input from government and industry stakeholders, and for compiling the output of all information gathered into a report for submission to the Regional RMP steering committee

Regional Benchmark

The regional benchmark was developed following the six step process outlined in Appendix II of Resource Planning Framework, Guidelines for the Development of Regional Resource Management Plans 2000/01. The regional benchmark has been included with this revision of the RMP, considered essential information to the reader in understanding the framework of this RMP.

Step 1

Identify Fish Species and Critical Stocks of Importance to the Region

Meetings were held with Ministry of Fisheries staff and Ministry of Environment Lands and Parks Fish, Wildlife, and Habitat Protection staff form the Omineca - Peace region to determine what the species of interest and the critical stocks were for the purposes of this plan. Department of Fisheries and Oceans staff comment and input was solicited and where available included in this step. Reference was also made to salmon watershed planning profile developed by Department of Fisheries and Oceans for planning exercises such as this RMP.

Critical species for the Prince George Forest Region are (two or three letter codes following species name represent RIC codes included on summary tables):

The species listed above represent provincially red- or blue-listed species, or species that are important from a First Nations, sustenance, commercial, or recreational fishery perspective.

The results of this step were presented to government and industry stakeholders for input. The Vanderhoof district was the only source of new fisheries information within the region. Several watersheds had a variety of additional species to be included in the plan. The source of this information was stated as ‘from MoF, MoELP, and DFO databases and licensee stream classification inventories’. Verifying the information that was submitted proved both difficult and time consuming, and because the information was not associated with category 1 watersheds, it was not included in the plan. The single exception to this was the Nithi watershed, where some of the submitted species was verified as correct and the watershed was considered a Very High regional fish priority. The Nithi River is a key element in the habitat of the Stellako rainbow trout, however it was not considered a Key watershed.

Step 2

Adopt a Base Map for the Region

A suitable base map for the Prince George Forest Region had to be developed that was at a broad enough scale to ensure some level of information was available for each watershed, yet not so broad as to lump high and low priority fish and domestic water supply areas together.

The fish assessment unit and landscape unit maps developed for the LRMP process in each of the 8 forest districts in the Prince George Forest Region provided a map base that met these criteria. Fish assessment units are landscape units modified to isolate areas of high (or low) fish values (e.g. areas of watersheds upstream of impassable barriers are separated from fish bearing areas). Fish assessment map bases were available for Prince George, Vanderhoof, Fort St. James, Robson Valley and Mackenzie Forest Districts. As fish assessment unit maps were not available for the Peace sub-Region, landscape unit maps were used instead for the Dawson Creek, Fort St John and Fort Nelson Forest Districts.

A further advantage of using fish assessment and landscape unit maps was that information on fish species distribution and importance had already been compiled for the various LRMP tables. Thus we were able to transfer information on fish values from the LRMP to the Forest Renewal B.C. RMP process. By maintaining our map base consistently with that of the various district LRMP’s, information developed from this planing exercise will also be available for future LRMP for use at meetings and or updates.

The Fish Assessment and Landscape Unit maps identified 340 watershed units within the Prince George Forest Region. On a district by district breakdown, watershed units were identified as follows:

• Prince George District:47 units
• Vanderhoof District:19 units
• Robson Valley District:25 units
• Fort St. James District:44 units
• Mackenzie District:56 units
• Dawson Creek District:34 units
• Fort St John District:43 units
• Fort Nelson District:72 units

Average size of the watershed units is 90,000 Ha, with a minimum of 276 Ha and a maximum of 406,000 Ha.

The same map base , as described above, was used for this revised version of the RMP including any changes to key watersheds.

Step 3

Select Watersheds as Delineated in Step 2 that contain Species/Stocks /Runs and or Important Producers or Conservation Streams for Species Identified in Step 1

In the original draft, watershed units were reviewed with Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks Fish, Wildlife, and Habitat Protection branch staff to identify which watersheds contained species/stocks/runs or were important producers or conservation streams for the species identified in step1. Department of Fisheries and Oceans staff were solicited for input but due to workload and timing concerns were not available to provide detailed comments on this stage of the benchmark. However, reference was made to the Salmon Watershed Planning Profiles for the Fraser River Basin developed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans staff for planning exercises such as this.

White sturgeon resides in the mainstem portions of large river systems such as the Fraser, Nechako, Bowron, McGregor, and Stuart Rivers as well, they reside or utilize portions of some major tributaries to these large rivers (i.e. Lower Torpy R). Where white sturgeon reside in these major tributaries, the fish species was used to reach the regional priority for fish value. Where the white sturgeon was found in the mainstem portions of these large rivers (i.e. Fraser R, Nechako R, etc) the species was not used to determine the regional priority for fish values. This was to prevent elevated regional priorities from the

Step 4

Identify Significant (>15 licenses) Domestic Water Supply and Forest Practices Code (FPC) Community Watersheds

Once Step 2 was completed, meetings were scheduled with Ministry of Environment Lands and Parks Water Management Branch staff to identify domestic water supply and FPC community watersheds.

Priority for domestic water supply was assigned to all 340 watersheds in the Prince George Forest Region. FPC community watersheds were listed as Very High Priority, as were watersheds with more than 25 domestic water supply licenses. Watersheds with 15 to 25 domestic water supply licenses were identified as High Priority, 5 to 14 as medium and less than 5 as low priority.

The format for domestic water supply ranking and prioritization did not change in the 2000 revision.

The regional breakdown of domestic water supply priorities in the 1999 draft were as follows:

• 5 Very High
• 2 High Priority
• 33 Medium
• 299 Low

and, the regional breakdown of domestic water supply priorities in the 2000 revision is as follows:

• 6 Very High
• 3 High Priority
• 33 Medium
• 299 Low

The low numbers of domestic water supply priorities in the Prince George Forest Region is due to the lack of FPC community watersheds compared with other regions and the their numbers of subterranean domestic water supplies.

Step 5

Rank Watersheds Identified in Steps 3 for Values to the Fish Resource or Species as Identified in Step 1

All 340 watersheds in the Prince George Forest Region were ranked according to their importance for the identified fish species from Step 1. The recommended procedure for ranking watersheds was as follows:

Very High priority watersheds contain two or more endangered, threatened, or unique species or stocks, or contain two or more high value stocks or targeted species with conservation concerns.

High priority watersheds contain one endangered, threatened or unique species or stock or stocks with a conservation concern.

Medium priority watersheds contain all other fish bearing watersheds

Low priority watersheds are non-fish bearing.

For the 1999 draft, decisions as to where species or stocks were found, or the importance of a given watershed to the viability of a species stock or run was carried out in conjunction with Ministry of Environment Lands and Parks Fish, Wildlife, and Habitat Protection Staff. Staff of Department of Fisheries and Oceans were solicited for comment but due to work load and timing issues were not available for detailed comment of the outcome of this stage of the benchmark. However, reference was made to the publications “Department of Fisheries and Oceans Salmon Watershed Planning Profiles”, which were developed to aid in plan development such as this RMP.

At the regional level in the 1999 draft, watersheds were divided up as follows:

• 85 Very High priority
• 146 High priority
• 109 Medium priority
• 0 Low priority
• Total

and, at the regional level in the 2000 revision, watersheds were divided up as follows:

• 98 Very High priority
• 135 High priority
• 95 Medium priority
• 12 Low priority
• Total

A stipulation of the guidelines presented in Appendix II of the Resource Planning Framework document was that no more than 25% of watersheds should be ranked as the highest category. From this the number of high priorities identified in the 1999 draft for fish values is exactly 25 % (340 X 25% = 85 watersheds).