| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
Modern clearcut or 'patch' logging as introduced in Okanagan watersheds since 1970, may have unexpected long-range effect on other water users further down on the stream and lake systems. The problems of flash flooding, stream sedimentation, added nitrogen-phosphorus content to the lakes and summer dry-up of streams, are established side effects of clearcut logging of watersheds. But the massive stripping and burning of the watersheds of a desert valley, dependent on water from the mountains for its existence, is without precedent in B.C. The collective result of intensive clearcutting in some watersheds as recently observed would suggest that very large-scale deforestation in most of the Okanagan water sources will have occurred within the next ten to twenty years. This process appears to have commenced without adequate warning to other water users or dwellers in the Okanagan water system, and without thorough investigation of the possible side effects of this tampering with the watershed system. Very few people in the province are in a position to be alarmed by the problems which may be produced by the new deforestation process. This is primarily because the Okanagan Valley is not administered as the one total geographic system it is - from heights of land surrounding the valley, to the lake systems in the valley bottom. The writer, a 'concerned citizen' with some training in regional planning and a strong interest in sensible use of our land and resources, feels that the possible dangers of new forestry practices as undertaken since the beginning of the seventies must be brought to the attention of Okanagan citizens and their governments. If one industry-forestry- which is only a small part of the Okanagan commercial base, should be endangering other livelihood in the valley, then forestry methods must be radically changed. watershed management, forest management, forest harvest, water quality, water supply |
