Water

The Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) objectives for water quality are primarily contained in the objectives for "water, fish, wildlife, and biodiversity in riparian areas" (Forest Planning and Practices Regulation, B.C. Reg. 14/2004). That is, the objective set by government for water, fish, wildlife and biodiversity within riparian areas is, without unduly reducing the supply of timber from British Columbia's forests, to conserve, at the landscape level, the water quality, fish habitat, wildlife habitat and biodiversity associated with those riparian areas. In addition, under "other objectives" in Regulation 14/2004, the government can set water quality objectives in a community watershed, establish a lakeshore management zone objective, or establish a fisheries-sensitive watershed objective. Under the Range Planning and Practices Regulation (B.C. Reg. 19/2004), range agreement holders must establish a Range Stewardship Plan that meets the following objectives for water:

• Maintain or improve water resources;
• Maintain or promote healthy riparian and upland areas;
• Maintain or promote riparian vegetation that provides sufficient shade to maintain stream temperature within the natural range of variability; and
• Maintain or promote desired riparian plant communities.

In the case of water resources, the questions that were developed by MoFR (in consultation with stakeholders) in 2005 to gauge the effectiveness of FRPA are as follows:

1. Are forest practices effective in protecting water quality?
2. Are forest and range practices increasing the risk of drinking water health hazards?

A suite of indicators are needed to assess the effectiveness of forest practices policy in meeting the government's objectives for water quality, as it pertains to:

1. The use of water for human consumption, and
2. Fish

In the context of effectiveness evaluation in BC, indicators play a different role than they do for sustainable forest management (SFM). For SFM, many of the water indicators are based on either the pressures placed on water resources from forest development (e.g., equivalent clearcut area or road density) or on implementation rates for Best Management Practices (BMPs - e.g., appropriate stream crossing design, adequate riparian reserve zones). Under FRPA, however, forest agreement holders have the ability to customize forest practices and develop site-specific strategies for environmental protection as long as the government's objectives are met, and there may be no clear standard for what constitutes a BMP.

Effectiveness evaluation indicators must therefore be able to provide information on whether the policy of allowing customized or innovative forest practices is effective in meeting the government's objectives. This means that the focus of the effectiveness evaluation indicators needs to be on the state of the resource, that is the actual water quality in the stream, lake or wetland. This presents some challenges for the development of meaningful routine level indicators that by definition are based on qualitative information that can be obtained quickly.

Resources

The following are Water related resources:

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