| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
As requested by Gorman Brothers Lumber Ltd . (Gorman); Riverside Forest Products Ltd., Kelowna Division (Riverside); and the Small Business Forest Enterprise Program, Penticton (the licensees), the Interior Watershed Assessment Procedure (IWAP) for the Trout Creek watershed has been updated from the December 1998 report to 2001. The IWAP update includes a summary of the 1998 IWAP, an office review of work completed since 1998, field assessments of selected sites in the watershed, and recommendations for the development proposed in the forest development plan (FDP) update for the period of 2002 to 2006. The current assessment was conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Okanagan- Shuswap Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) (refer to Appendix Afor details) . The objectives of this report are as follows: 1) Address the issues identified by the Watershed Assessment Committee (WAC) at the May 16, 2001 initial IWAP meeting; 2) Present the current condition of the watershed based on the field assessments conducted in September 2001; 3) Review the current five-year FDP (2002-2006) in relation to the current watershed condition; 4) Discuss the potential hydrologic effects of the proposed development and provide recommendations; 5) Comply with the requirements of the Forest Practices Code Operational Planning Regulation that watershed assessments must be completed for community watersheds every three years and prior to submitting an FDP. The Trout Creek community watershed drains from the Thompson Plateau on the west side of Okanagan Lake near Summerland, BC (Figure 1). The watershed encompasses an area of approximately 752km squared ranging in elevation from 342m at Okanagan Lake to a maximum of 1,923m. Timber harvesting has occurred in the watershed over the past 60 years. Selective harvesting was the dominant silviculture practice in the early years. For the past 30 years, the dominant silvicultural system has been clearcuting in the even-aged lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce/sub-alpine fir stands at higher elevations. |
