Water Stewardship Information Sources
| ID | 579 |
|---|---|
| Citation | Ecoscape Environmental Consultants Ltd. 2011. Shoreline management guidelines for fish and fish habitat: Mabel Lake. Prepared for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Regional District of North Okanagan and BC FLNRO. |
| Organization | FLNRO |
| URL | http://www.cmnbc.ca/sites/default/files/Shoreline%2520Management%2520Guidelines%2520for%2520Fish%2520and%2520Fish%2520Habitat_0_1.pdf |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | The guidelines presented in this report are founded on the beliefs that it is possible and desirable to manage our watersheds and their natural surroundings in a sustainable manner and that sustainable management is the shared responsibility of all stakeholders, including proponents, professionals and all levels of government. This report provides risk-based management guidelines for fish habitat on the shoreline of Mabel Lake under which proponents and qualified professionals can proceed with common, low-risk works without review by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), but where specific, detailed design and assessment information is required by DFO for review of less common, higher-risk works. The guidelines presented in this report are based on technical results of shoreline inventories recently completed on Mabel Lake as part of the larger Shuswap Watershed Mapping project. These inventories provided important background information concerning fish habitats that occur on Mabel Lake and fish habitat impacts caused by common development activities. The guidelines are intended to protect and restore important fish habitat values, consistent with conservation and restoration goals of the DFO Policy for Management of Fish Habitat (DFO, 1986) and concerns of residents expressed in the Kingfisher Local Area Plan (MMM Group and Site 360, 2010). These guidelines do not address development risks to non-fish species (e.g., reptiles), or riparian or upland ecosystems that do not also provide fish habitat (e.g., provincially ﾓred-listedﾔ cottonwood riparian ecosystems on large river floodplains) because the assessment only includes features that are within 50 meters of the high water mark. Additional inventory and mapping projects such as Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory would be required to address concerns related to wildlife species and ecosystems along the shoreline. A solid understanding of aquatic and riparian fish habitat values, common development activities and the effects of these activities on fish habitat is required to identify and differentiate low and high risk works. Foreshore Inventory and Mapping (FIM) is a standardized, spatially explicit shoreline inventory methodology that was employed to map the shorelines of Mabel Lake. This methodology has been used to map the shorelines of other BC lakes and provides a common basis for integrating environmental information into land use guidance documents. Guidelines presented in this document are based upon the FIM methodology and data collected during FIM surveys. These guidelines are the final step in an inventory and management framework that has been previously applied to other lakes in the Shuswap, Okanagan and Kootenay regions of BC: 1. Shoreline Inventories following the FIM methodology were completed using a variety of techniques and data was derived from numerous sources (Schleppe, 2009c). These baseline inventories provided an understanding of the current condition of foreshore areas of Mabel Lake. 2. An Aquatic Habitat Index (AHI) was generated using FIM data to determine the relative fish habitat value of mapped shoreline areas (Schleppe, 2009c). This index employed similar methods to previous AHI projects on Shuswap, Mara, Moyie, and Monroe Lakes (Schleppe, 2010a; Schleppe, 2010b). 3. Shoreline management guidelines contained within this document were prepared for mapped shorelines to clarify and streamline review processes for development activities that may impact fish and fish habitat. These shoreline management guidelines will better inform proponents, professionals and government agencies of risks posed to fish and fish habitat by development activities that would alter the lake shoreline. Key deliverables for this project include a map of the shoreline of Mabel Lake in which individual shoreline segments - or ﾓvulnerability zonesﾔ - were colour-themed based on their current relative habitat value. Under this system, red shoreline segments represent the highest value fish habitat areas, receive the highest level of protection and require the most detailed project design and assessment information to support agency and local government reviews. In contrast, green shoreline segments represent areas of lower habitat value or areas that have been significantly impacted by past development where common, low-risk works may proceed under existing guidelines without DFO review. Application of present-day development guidelines to all shoreline segments is expected to maintain current fish habitat values of natural areas while gradually recovering fish habitat values lost to past development impacts. This gradual recovery of fish habitat is required because the extent of development-related impacts that has been documented to occur without appropriate best management practices in place to mitigate these impacts is now noticeable (e.g., extensive substrate modification due to groynes or removal of important riparian vegetation to create "landscaped" areas consisting predominantly of turf). Relative risks of common development activities were also recorded in tabular format for the full range of relative habitat values and tables and flow charts were developed to guide proponents, professionals and practitioners through project assessment, reviews and works. This report only provides guidance related to conservation and protection of fish habitat values. It does not consider other development factors such as erosion hazards, drinking water quality or navigation as these lie outside of the current scope of work and require data that is not adequately collected following the FIM methods. Also, guidelines and review processes detailed in this report apply only to fish habitat protection requirements of the federal Fisheries Act as administered by DFO on Mabel Lake. It remains the obligation of proponent, professionals and other government agencies to ensure compliance with other legislation that may apply to their projects. |
| Information Type | report |
| Regional Watershed | Shuswap |
| Sub-watershed if known | Mabel Lake |
| Aquifer # | |
| Comments | |
| Project status | complete |
| Contact Name | Ecoscape Environmental Consultants Ltd |
| Contact Email | [email protected] |