January 13th, 2023
As you might expect the Susan Bond Memorial Library has to be periodically updated with new works. We do try to locate and curate reports maps and documents that pertain to the natural resources of the East Kootenay. After feedback from some of our users, the Rocky Mountain Trench Ecosystem Restoration Program will be updating this resource once a year and will be keeping the new reports in their own annual folder in the library directory for at least 6 months for ease of review. So, if you want to just check out the 2022 additions sign into the memorial library and check the folder “2022 Susan Bond Library addition”. 39 new very interesting reports, some highlights are:
1. The final draft of “Prescribed Fire and Invasive Plants A Reference Guide and Manual of Best Practices” written by the Invasive Plant Program of the Ministry of Forests and issued in January 2022. This draft has been in circulation for a while and reviewed under a blog on our website in February 2022. The cover photo is from the 2018 ?aq’am and Indian Springs North prescribed burn. This burn report has been placed on our website (Maps | Rocky Mountain Trench Society (trench-er.com) under the Current plan tab on our website as Planning documents - Google Drive In the actual library it can be found under the invasive plants folder or by the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eVg2z9Xs1E96b8D8vaqIKc8PYmEOlzqn/view?usp=sharing
2. Two excellent papers on landscape level fire ecology in the East Kootenay have come out in 2022. “A century of transformation: fire regime transitions from 1919 to 2019 in southeastern British Columbia, Canada Jennifer N. Baron · Sarah E. Gergel · Paul F. Hessburg · Lori D. Daniels” is now on the 2022 drive and under Fire regimes East Kootenay. This article Summarised on “UBC Tree Ring Lab (TRL) Research Bulletin | AUGUST 2022” Both reports are fascinating in that they quantify several assumptions that have always been in the fire maintained ecosystem restoration program. For example
a. The report summarises many previous fire regime studies. It shows the light impact, frequent (every ten to 20 years a fire returns return) fire regime exists well above the 1200 metre elevation that is usually used as an upper boundary. The mixed severity fire regime is much smaller.
b. The report uses all the known wildfires since 1919. Most of the southern Rocky Mountain Trench has gone through 10 fire return periods without a fire, the northern Rocky Mountain Trench has gone through 5 or 6 fire return period without a fire.
c. This lack of fire has created a huge fuel build up in the East Kootenay District; 89% of the flammable district has not experienced a fire since 1959. The reports shows a need for fuel reduction, fire management and prescribed burns on a large scale.
3. The 2021 Lytton fire has two reports” An examination of the Lytton, British Columbia wildland-urban fire destruction Summary Report to the British Columbia FireSmart Committee Prepared by: Jack D. Cohen, PhD., Research Physical Scientist, Missoula, MT. Alan Westhaver, M.Sc., ForestWise Environmental Consulting Ltd., Salmon Arm, B.C. May 2022’ and a summary report by the same authors. Both reports lay out the events as they occurred in the fire, examine why some houses burnt and some did not and it makes recommendations for fire smarting communities. A good read for community fire staff.
4. Conservation lands are parcels of crown land managed for wildlife or other conservation values. Local examples are bummer’s flats, Eastside Columbia Lake, the Columbia Wetlands and the Old Kimberley Airport. The Office of the Auditor General BC reviewed the entire program in 2021 outlining a new vision for the program (MANAGEMENT OF THE CONSERVATION LANDS PROGRAM) and we have the report, a summary and the response from Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations to the plan. This may be of great local interest as we have a large number of these parcels in the East Kootenays.
5. Progress Report on Steps Taken for Protection of Critical Habitat for Species at Risk in Canada (October 2020 – March 2021) is published by the federal Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (ECC) gives a listing of what actions were taken by various provincial government in 2021. It describes and collates but draws no conclusions, offers analysis and does not list next step, it is a list of actions over the year.
6. As a counterpoint Report Brief: Species at Risk Recovery in BC An Audit of Federal and Provincial Policies and Tools issued by the Wilderness Committee and the Sierra Club does analyse efforts to date, and advocates strongly for new initiatives and laws to protect wildlife habitat.
7. There is a “Wildlife Tree Effectiveness report by Todd Manning 2022. Again, great local interest as from 2010 to 2017 Todd Manning had inoculated large healthy trees of many species with heart rot fungi. The intent was to speed up the creation of cavity nesting trees while still maintaining a tree that could resist wildfire and continue growing. This is a monitoring report that several good suggestions on the future of this treatment.
8. Best Management Practices for Whitebark Pine by Randy Moody and Don Piggott 2021 issued by the Species at Risk Recovery Branch is a draft outlining surveys, thinning operations, seed collection and planting Whitebark pine. The ecology and value of this pine to the environment and local species are outlined and note the main author Randy Moody is a Kimberley resident. It ties into another Whitebark pine paper Effective actions for managing resilient high elevation five-needle white pine forests in western North America at multiple scales under changing climates by Robert E. Keane, Anna W. Schoettle, Diana F. Tomback which offers a climate change lens to the same species.
9. From the Cariboo Region we have added Management Strategy for Mule Deer Winter Ranges in the Cariboo-Chilcotin Part 1a: Management Plan for Shallow and Moderate Snowpack Zones 2007 Land Management Handbook 60. There is a current debate around the current ungulate winter guidelines in the Rocky Mtn Trench and this book is based on good science but comes to very different management regimes.
10. We also have four excellent papers from Myra Juckers, the Environmental Officer for Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it First Nation (tobacco Plains First Nation) All four papers revolve around her on reserve studies to control the spread of sulphur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta) through goat grazing, herbicide or native species biomass.
If you have any comments about the library or the Ecosystem Restoration program, Please Contact
Marc Trudeau, Coordinator
Rocky Mountain Trench
Ecosystem Restoration Program
Phone: 250-427-1138
Email: marc@trench-society.com
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