Riparian Management Area Guidebook

Helps managers, planners and field staff set and comply with Forest Practices Code standards for management of riparian management areas (RMAs).

The British Columbia Forest Practices Code specifies planning and operational guidelines for each phase of timber harvesting operations around streams, lakes, and wetlands. This guide describes suitable practices to meet the objectives of the riparian management regulations within the Code, specifically the requirement to correctly identify streams on the basis of fish presence in order to ensure the protection of fish populations and habitats during all phases of forest harvesting. The guide defines the classes of streams distinguished for aquatic ecosystem and riparian zone management, identifies fish species that define a stream as fish-bearing under the Code, and describes factors influencing fish-stream identification such as stream reach, gradient, stream size, natural barriers, and fisheries sensitive zones. The guide concludes with methods for identifying fish streams, including measurement, sampling, data recording, and mapping procedures.

Small fish-bearing streams that are classified into class S4 under the British Columbia Forest Practices Code are not required to have a riparian reserve zone immediately adjacent to both sides of the stream, but are required to have an outer riparian management zone. This report describes a survey that assessed the condition of S4 streams in interior British Columbia to determine the effects of riparian forest harvest practices implemented under the Code. The purpose of the survey was to determine: the frequency of implementation of different types of streamside harvesting practices; whether those different practices meet the objectives of the Riparian Management Area Guidebook; and whether those practices result in apparent impacts to fish habitat. The survey investigated the extent of forest harvesting potentially affecting S4 streams, the prevalent riparian silvicultural treatments & levels of tree retention, the evidence for post-harvest stream channel disturbance, and the extent of windthrow & windthrow-related impacts to the stream. Results are presented & discussed for a review of 2,989 cutblocks harvested between 1997 & 1998 in six forest districts in the central interior plateau.

The Forest Practices Code guidebooks help forest resource managers plan, prescribe and implement sound forest practices that comply with the Forest Practices Code. This guidebook focuses on the preparation and administration of logging plans, as required under the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and the Operational Planning Regulations.

Describes how to develop a silviculture prescription - a site-specific plan that describes the forest management objectives for an area.

Provides managers, planners and field staff with a recommended process for meeting biodiversity objectives - both landscape and stand level - as required under the Forest Practices Code.

This guide is a technical support document intended to help forestry practitioners collect the information they need to prepare a silvicultural treatment regime and silviculture prescription in accordance with British Columbia Forest Practices Code legislation. It deals primarily with the collection & stratification of site-specific field data. After information on office preparation, stratification, plot establishment, and mapping procedures, the guide presents data collection procedures for silviculture prescription field forms. Copies of forms are included in the appendix. The data cover such matters as site characteristics, understorey & overstorey, soils, riparian & watershed values, soil & fire hazards, silvicultural systems & objectives, harvesting, forest health, stand tending, and forest resource values.