Water Stewardship Information Sources

Citation Coast Information Team, Hydroriparian Planning Guide Work Team. 2004. Hydroriparian planning guide. BC Ministry of Forests.
Organization FLNRO
URL https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/tasb/slrp/citbc/c-hpg-final-30Mar04.pdf
Abstract/Description or Keywords 1.1 Purpose
The Hydroriparian Planning Guide (the Guide) forms one component of the Ecosystem-based
Management Framework designed to “ensure the coexistence of healthy, fully functioning ecosystems
and human communities” in coastal British Columbia.1 It provides a description and rationale of
the hydroriparian concepts and methods presented in the Ecosystem-based Management Planning
Handbook (referred to hereafter as EBM Planning Handbook).2
The purpose of this Guide is to facilitate the design of forest management plans that are likely to
maintain hydroriparian functions at a watershed scale in Central and North Coastal British
Columbia and Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands. It specifies and describes a series of steps,
consistent with those in the EBM Planning Handbook, needed to fulfill this aim.
1.2 Audience
This Hydroriparian Planning Guide has two principal audiences:
1. participants at Land and Resources Management Planning (LRMP) tables, or equivalent
bodies, and First Nations Land Use Planning tables for whom the Guide will provide
information and assistance toward managing risks associated with forest land use at a
strategic level in a way that will effectively link to more detailed levels of planning;
2. forest planners who require advice and assistance to design practices to achieve specified
acceptable levels of risk.
The document presents the full rationale and bases for the planning process, and assumes that
readers have some level of expertise. Nevertheless, many kinds of expertise are required in forest
land management, so it is supposed that few readers will be familiar with all the topics discussed.
Accordingly, Appendix 7 lists a glossary of technical terms. The first occurrence in the text of
each term defined in the glossary is signified by bold type. This document is not an operational
field guide.
1.3 Hydroriparian Ecosystems
Hydroriparian ecosystems consist of aquatic ecosystems plus those of the adjacent terrestrial
environment that are influenced by and influence the aquatic system. Such ecosystems occur
wherever land contacts water bodies in the earth’s surface environment. They extend along
stream courses from steep alpine headwaters to the ocean, transporting water, sediment,
nutrients, organisms, and wood through watersheds. They include river floodplains and extend
around lakes and wetlands, and along estuarine and ocean shores to the edge of reciprocal
terrestrial and aquatic influences. They extend vertically below ground into a water-saturated
zone inhabited by invertebrates and microbial organisms. Hydroriparian ecosystems contain much of British Columbia’s biodiversity and represent the most productive part of the
landscape, including the most productive forest sites, particularly in riverine floodplains. Like all
ecosystems, hydroriparian ecosystems continually change, modified by disturbance effects of
flooding, erosion, and sedimentation and the ecological processes of recovery and succession.
Appendix 2 lists the characteristics of important hydroriparian ecosystems of the CIT region.
Hydroriparian zones are the physical land and water surface areas occupied by biophysical
hydroriparian ecosystems. They carry water from the surface of the land, the quality of which is
critical to safeguard. British Columbia’s streams and lakes contain diverse and valuable fisheries.
In the wet Central and North Coast of British Columbia (including Haida Gwaii/Queen
Charlotte Islands), the distinction between upland and wetland is often unclear, and riparian
ecosystems can extend considerably beyond channels and wetlands. To ensure healthy fish
habitat requires that land development practices be managed to maintain all hydroriparian
ecosystem functions.
To meet the objective of maintaining the functions of hydroriparian ecosystems, hydroriparian
zones must be defined with those functions in mind. For practical purposes, hydroriparian zones
are delineated as extending to the edge of the influence of water on land defined by plant
community (including high-bench or dry floodplain communities) and/or landform (e.g., gullies)
plus one-and-a-half site-specific tree heights (horizontal distance) beyond. Furthermore, it is
assumed that hydroriparian zones and hydroriparian ecosystems are coextensive, but it is
necessary to recognize that some hydroriparian ecosystem characteristics (such as the range of
non-obligate riparian animals) cannot practically be delimited.
Information Type report
Regional Watershed Central Coast; Vancouver Island North; Haida Gwaii
Sub-watershed if known
Aquifer #
Comments
Project status complete
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