Assessing the implications of forest management strategies on stream condition in the Oktwanch River Watershed, BC
van Amerom, Brit (author) Ives, Kim (thesis advisor) Ives, Kim (chair) Henault, Lisa (committee member) British Columbia Institute of Technology School of Construction and the Environment (Degree granting institution) Simon Fraser University Faculty of Environment (Degree granting institution)
Dissertation/thesis
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ © Brit van Amerom, 2024. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphics, electronic, or mechanical including photocopying, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems – without written permission of the author.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
British Columbia Institute of Technology
2024-05-16
100 pages
The harvest of riparian vegetation is a principal threat to aquatic ecosystems, often resulting in heavily aggraded and widened streams that provide diminished benefits for ecologically and culturally important salmonids. Riparian Management Areas are buffers required by the Forest and Range Practices Act of BC that restrict harvest around rivers, lakes, and wetlands. The purpose of this study was to determine if current forest management strategies, such as RMAs, are effectively protecting streams from the impacts of forest harvest and if restoration could aid in the recovery of riparian forests in the Oktwanch River watershed. This was achieved through assessments of stream condition and riparian vegetation structure, composition, and width in the Oktwanch River watershed and a spatial analysis of forest-cover-based intactness of RMAs and lateral morphological changes in the Oktwanch River mainstem from 1985 to 2022 using Landsat imagery. This study determined that poor stream condition was more closely linked to the structure and composition of stands in RMAs than insufficient RMA widths, suggesting that the legacy effects of riparian harvest that began more than 60 years ago continue to impact stream condition in the Oktwanch River watershed. A management approach that restricts forest harvest at the watershed-scale would be most effective in facilitating the recovery of riparian forests and streams in the Oktwanch River watershed.
Ecological Restoration
electronic
Master of Science
