Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory: East Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands 1993 - 1997
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Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory: East Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands 1993 - 1997 Volume 2: Conservation Manual Michael McPhee, Quadra Planning Consultants Ltd. Peggy Ward, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada Jan Kirkby, Conservation Data Centre, Ministry of Environment, Lands, and Parks Larry Wolfe, Quadra Planning Consultants Ltd. Nick Page, Coast River Environmental Services Ltd. Katherine Dunster, Dunster and Associates Environmental Consultants Ltd. Neil K. Dawe, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada Inga Nykwist, Capital Research Pacific and Yukon Region 2000 Canadian Wildlife Service Environmental Conservation Branch Technical Report Series Number 345 Environment Environnement Canada Canada Canadian Wildlife Service Canadien Service de la faune Ministry of Environment, WORKING TOGETHER FOR THE Lands and Parks GEORGIA BASIN AU TRAVAIL POUR LE BASSIN DE GEORGIA TECHNICAL REPORT SERIES CANADIAN WILDLIFE SERVICE This series of reports, established in 1986, contains technical and scientific information from projects of the Canadian Wildlife Service. The reports are intended to make available material that either is of interest to a limited audience or is too extensive to be accommodated in scientific journals or in existing CWS series. Demand for these Technical Reports is usually confined to specialists in the fields concerned. Consequently, they are produced regionally and in small quantities; they can be obtained only from the address given on the back of the title page. However, they are numbered nationally. The recommended citation appears on the title page. Technical Reports are available in CWS libraries and are listed in the catalogue of the National Library of Canada in scientific libraries across Canada. They are printed in the official language chosen by the author to meet the language preference of the likely audience, with a résumé in the second official language. To determine whether there is significant demand for making the reports available in the second official language, CWS invites users to specify their official language preference. Requests for Technical Reports in the second official language should be sent to the address on the back of the title page. SÉRIE DE RAPPORTS TECHNIQUES DU SERVICE CANADIEN DE LA FAUNE Cette série de rapports donnant des informations scientifiques et techniques sur les projets du Service canadien de la faune (SCF) a démarré en 1986. L'objet de ces rapports est de promouvoir la diffusion d'études s'adressant à un public restreint ou trop volumineuses pour paraître dans une revue scientifique ou l'une des séries du SCF. Ordinairement, seuls les spécialistes des sujets traités demandent ces rapports techniques. Ces documents ne sont donc produits qu'à l'échelon régional et en quantités limitées; ils ne peuvent être obtenus qu'à l'adresse figurant au dos de la page titre. Cependant, leur numérotage est effectué à l'échelle nationale. La citation recommandée apparaît à la page titre. Ces rapports se trouvent dans les bibliothèques du SCF et figurent aussi dans la liste de la Bibliothèque nationale du Canada utilisée dans les principales bibliothèques scientifiques du Canada. Ils sont publiés dans la langue officielle choisie par l'auteur en fonction du public visé, avec un résumé dans la deuxième langue officielle. En vue de déterminer si la demande est suffisamment importante pour produire ces rapports dans la deuxième langue officielle, le SCF invite les usagers à lui indiquer leur langue officielle préferée. Il faut envoyer les demandes de rapports techniques dans la deuxième langue officielle à l'adresse indiquée au verso de la page titre. Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory: East Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands 1993 - 1997 Volume 2: Conservation Manual Michael McPhee, Quadra Planning Consultants Ltd. Peggy Ward, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada Jan Kirkby, Conservation Data Centre, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks Larry Wolfe, Quadra Planning Consultants Ltd. Nick Page, Coast River Environmental Services Ltd. Katherine Dunster, Dunster and Associates Environmental Consultants Ltd. Neil K. Dawe, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada Inga Nykwist, Capital Research Technical Report Series No. 345 Pacific and Yukon Region 2000 Canadian Wildlife Service This series may be cited as: McPhee, M., P.Ward, J. Kirkby, L. Wolfe, N. Page, K. Dunster, N. K. Dawe and I. Nykwist. 2000. Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory: East Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands, 1993 - 1997. Volume 2: Conservation Manual. Technical Report Series No. 345, Canadian Wildlife Service, Pacific and Yukon Region, British Columbia. Published by the authority of the Minister of Environment Canadian Wildlife Service ©Minister of Government Services 2000 Catalogue No. CW69-5/345E ISBN # 0-662-28562-X Copies may be obtained from: Canadian Wildlife Service or B.C. Conservation Data Centre Pacific and Yukon Region Box 9344, Stn. Prov. Govt. 5421 Robertson Road, RR1 Victoria, B.C. V8W 9M1 Delta, B.C. V4K 3N2 Websites: www.pyr.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/sei or www.elp.gov.bc.ca/rib/wis/cdc/sei Acknowledgments he preparation of this manual was very much a team effort. SEI Technical Advisory The initial draft was written by Michael McPhee, Larry Group TWolfe, Nick Page, Katherine Dunster and Inga Nykwist. Subsequently, Peggy Ward and Neil K. Dawe, Canadian Wildlife Peggy Ward, Canadian Service, and Jan Kirkby, Conservation Data Centre, wrote Wildlife Service, additional material and designed, edited and prepared the Environment Canada; Marlene Caskey and document for publication. Trudy Chatwin, Vancouver Island Regional Office, Members of the Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) Technical Ministry of Advisory Group (TAG) and Steering Committee (see sidebars) Environment, Lands and provided direction and valuable knowledge and information Parks; throughout the preparation of the document. They also reviewed Andrew Harcombe drafts and provided positive comments that substantially improved Carmen Cadrin, and its content and readability. The TAG managed the SEI project Jan Kirkby, Conservation through its various phases (1993 - 2000) by formalising project Data Centre, Ministry of goals, establishing methodologies, managing contracts, conducting Environment, Lands and quality control, designing inventory and outreach products, and Parks. providing scientific support to users of the inventory data. SEI Steering Committee Helpful review comments on earlier drafts of the manual were also provided by Pam Krannitz and Saul Schneider, Canadian Wildlife Rick McKelvey, Service, Environment Canada, Peter Law and Bill Hubbard, Trish Hayes, Ken Brock, and Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks and Brad Mason, Peggy Ward, Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Additional review comments on the Wildlife Service, final draft were made by Joel Ussery, Parks Department, Capital Environment Canada Regional District, Harriet Rueggeberg, Strategic Planning, City of Mike Whately, Nanaimo, Kevin Key, Planning Department, District of Highlands, Mike Lambert, and Peter Law, Margaret Henigman, and Bill Hubbard, Vancouver Marlene Caskey, Vancouver Island Regional Office, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks. Island Regional Office, Jeanne Illingworth and Judith Cullington, SEI Coordinators, gave Ministry of much needed support and advice at different times during the Environment, Lands and project and were appreciated by all members of the TAG and Parks Steering committees. Andrew Harcombe and Jan Kirkby, Conservation We are grateful to various local artists who provided the line Data Centre, Ministry of drawings that greatly enhanced the manual: Donald Gunn, Briony Environment, Lands and Parks Penn, Laura Friis, Michael Hames, Keith Taylor and Brigid Van Erik Karlsen, Ministry of Der Ray (Governemt of British Columbia), Chris Guppy, Municipal Affairs Elizabeth J. Stephen, Christine Tunnoch, Jack Grundle, Robert Savannah (courtesy U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and others from the Canadian Wildlife Service. We are also grateful to Gail Harcombe, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks who assisted us in obtaining many of the line drawings. Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory Conservation Manual i Major funding for the SEI project was provided by Environment Canada (Canadian Wildlife Service) and the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund. In-kind resources were provided by B.C. Environment, Lands and Parks (Vancouver Island Regional Office, Nanaimo and Conservation Data Centre, Victoria). Additional funds were contributed by B.C.’s Corporate Resources Inventory Initiative, B.C. Ministry of Forests, Capital and Comox-Strathcona Regional Districts, Provincial Capital Commission, Islands Trust and the municipalities of Nanaimo and Campbell River. Fisheries and Oceans Canada provided additional stream data to supplement TRIM mapping. ii Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory Conservation Manual Abstract he Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) mapped the remaining fragments of rare and fragile terrestrial Tecosystems throughout the eastern coastal lowland of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia. Ecologically significant lands and important wildlife habitats are fast disappearing from this 4,000 square kilometre study area. Inventory results showed that less than 8% of the area remained relatively undisturbed by development. Volume 1: Methodology, Ecological Descriptions and Results documents and describes the inventory and summarises and analyses the results. The main objective of the SEI project was to provide