| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
Public concern about the possible effects of forest harvesting on water quality is reflected in newspaper articles, government reports, environmental group reports, and government legislation and policy. The provincial government in British Columbia has a new plan to address this issue. The government will rely, at least in part, on Water Quality Objectives (WQOs) to move from a prescriptive forest practices code to a results-based code. This plan will define the results forest licensees must achieve, while giving them broad flexibility in how they accomplish these results. In a May 2002 discussion paper, government stated three results they will expect in relation to water quality in community watersheds and high-value fish streams. Specifically, the report made the following statement: “Forest and range practices will be conducted in a manner that will: _ not introduce deleterious substances to streams; _ meet community watershed objectives at the water supply intake; _ maintain water quality, water quantity and timing of flow within the range of natural variability." (Province of B.C. 2002: 34) The objective of this perspective article is to examine three forestry and water quality studies to assess how practical a water quality results-based regulatory scheme will be. This is neither a review of the literature nor a critique of legislation. Rather, it is a somewhat subjective attempt to apply British Columbia research experience to an important policy issue. Following an outline of relevant literature and introduction of key issues, we will discuss three watershed studies: _ Carnation Creek watershed study on the west coast of Vancouver Island (Hartman and Scrivener 1990; Church 1998); _ Matthew Creek watershed study in southeastern British Columbia (Gluns and Toews 1989); and _ Sediment budget studies in the Kootenays (Jordan and Fanjoy 1999; Henderson and Toews 2001; Jordan 2001). |
