Water Stewardship Information Sources
| Citation | Millard, T and Chatwin, S. 2001. Using helicopter harvesting on steep slopes to reduce erosion, preliminary results: Case study on Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Forest Research Extension Note EN-010, Vancouver Forest Region. |
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| Organization | FLNRO |
| URL | https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/rco/research/georeports/en10.pdf |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | Forestry is a major economic activity on the Queen Charlotte Islands (QCI), an archipelago located off the northwest coast of British Columbia (BC). For some time, the effects of forestry activities on erosion, and in particular mass wasting (or landslides) in the Islands have been of concern. At 0.12 landslides/km2 /y on forested terrain (Rood 1984), natural landslide events are relatively frequent on QCI due to a combination of steep terrain and a mild, wet climate characterized by intense precipitation from frequent, long-lasting winter storms (Karanka 1986). Traditional forestry operations increased the frequency of landslides in steep terrain, often to the detriment of fish habitat and other resources (Hogan et al. 1998). In an assessment of cutblocks harvested from 1970 to 1982, Rood (1984) found that clearcut harvesting had the effect of increasing the volume of sediment from landslides by four times over the natural landslide rate, and road building resulted in a 62 times increase in the volumetric landslide rate. Overall, about 75% of the harvesting-related landslides in the QCI have been occurring in clearcuts, and 25% originating from roads (Rollerson 1992). |
| Information Type | report |
| Regional Watershed | Haida Gwaii |
| Sub-watershed if known | |
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| Comments | |
| Project status | complete |
| Contact Name | Tom Millard |
| Contact Email | [email protected] |