Skid Road Recontouring In Southeastern British Columbia

The British Columbia Forest Practices Code creates a legal requirement for soil conservation and, in particular, calls for skid road rehabilitation to restore site productivity & site hydrology. This report presents the seven-year results of a research trial initiated in the Nelson Forest Region in 1985 to test the efficacy of rehabilitation practices by quantifying tree growth on rehabilitated skid roads. Sites were planted with lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, or both. At eight locations in the Rocky and Purcell mountains, total height, annual height increment, and basal diameter were measured on 1,713 trees ranging in age from six to ten years. Comparisons are made between growth of undisturbed trees and those on various locations on the rehabilitated berm. Based on the results, recommendations are made regarding improvements to skid road rehabilitation.

Forests cover approximately 26% of the world's land surface area and represent a distinct biotic community. They interact with water and soil in a variety of ways, providing canopy surfaces which trap precipitation and allow evaporation back into the atmosphere, thus regulating how much water reaches the forest floor as through fall, as well as pull water from the soil for transpiration. The discipline "forest hydrology" has been developed throughout the 20th century. During that time human intervention in natural landscapes has increased, and land use and management practices have intensified. The book will be useful for graduate students, professionals, land managers, practitioners, and researchers with a good understanding of the basic principles of hydrology and hydrologic processes.

The Elk Valley coalfield is one of three structurally separate coalfields in southeastern British Columbia which together comprise the East Kootenay coalfields. This study used mapping, measurement of stratigraphic sections, core logging, coal sampling, grab sampling and channel sampling in the field, laboratory analysis of coal and pellets, and structural analysis to provide information on stratigraphy, tonsteins, coal seam maceral compositions, structural geology, coal rank distribution, and coal quality.