F20 land management operations
This project focuses on the coordination, oversight, and implementation of land stewardship activities associated with conservation-held lands.
Update: Guardian Watch raises awareness about cultural heritage and ecological values
Nineteen members of local Indigenous Nations patrolled BC Hydro reservoirs and conservancy lands in shifts for the Guardian Watch Program. Their goal was to raise awareness about cultural heritage and ecological values.
Campers, recreationalists, and off-road vehicle users can easily, and often unknowingly, destroy culturally sensitive sites. Misuse of beaches and riparian areas can contribute to the loss of artifacts and valuable information about ancestral history, and the environmental damage impacts the health of local fish and wildlife populations.
This Indigenous-led program is a partnership between the Ktunaxa Nation, Okanagan Nation Alliance, Secwepemc Nation, BC Hydro, the FWCP, and provincial government agencies. It focuses on education and awareness, and it is run in conjunction with conservation officers and natural resource officers.
The FWCP, in partnership with the Province of B.C., also installed new signs on several conservation properties. These help clearly define property boundaries and—along with the Guardian Watch Program—have resulted in reductions in off-road damage, littering, tree cutting, dumping, and illegal camping.
Final report: executive summary
Wildlife trees provide critical nesting, denning, roosting, feeding and perching habitat to over 70 species of birds, mammals and amphibians in British Columbia (Fenger et al. 2006). These include some species which are considered at risk provincially and federally. Dependent on the age, condition and disturbance history of the forested landscape, wildlife trees can be in short supply in some areas. This is the case at the 2019 treatment sites located in the east and west Kootenay region of southeastern BC (Figure 1): Corn Creek (near Creston, BC), Marl Creek (near Donald, BC), and Wycliffe, BC (Luke Creek and Pine Butte Ranch areas). These areas all have high habitat capability for cavity-dwelling wildlife but currently lack complex stand structural attributes and a sufficient supply of wildlife trees in moderate-advanced stages of decay. Increasing stand structural complexity and old growth forest-like attributes, including the abundance of wildlife trees (i.e., large live trees with internal decay and dead trees) are recommended objectives for these areas.
Click the provincial database link below to read the full final report for this project.
F20 Land Management Operations Activity Report: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/acat/public/viewReport.do?reportId=59025