Resource Values


Stream along the Old Growth Trail. Water is the priority resource managed for in WADF. Other resource values include:

  • tourism and recreation
  • timber
  • wildcrafting
  • old-growth ponderosa pine
  • two spawning channels for Kokanee salmon
  • viewscape

There are 301 registered water licenses on streams and springs in WADF. The objectives for managing water resources in WADF are to:

  • Consider water to be the highest priority resource.
  • Maintain quality, quantity and timing of water flows.
  • Ensure peak flows are not increased and low flows are not decreased by management activities.
  • Preserve the functioning of riparian areas.
  • Maintain present soil moisture regimes.
  • Demonstrate improved management and assessment alternatives not included in Forest Practices Code guidebooks.
Protection of the water resource will be achieved by applying the following objectives:
  • Identify enhanced riparian management areas in the total resource development (TRD).
  • Reduce overall area of roads through access management.
  • Minimize the impact of roads on water quality through detailed planning, careful construction techniques, good road maintenance, and deactivation.
  • Minimize the environmental impacts of roads on soils, wildlife, recreational opportunities, and views.
  • Minimize the loss of productive sites to roads.
  • Demonstrate the latest concepts in minimum impact road construction, maintenance, deactivation, and monitoring.
The Old Growth Trail in WADF WADF is a popular recreation area. Visiting and local recreationalists use the area to hike, cross country ski, mountain bike, snowmobile, pick berries, photograph, and fish in alpine lakes. Tens of thousands of people per year access Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park through WADF. The objectives for managing recreation values in WADF are to:
  • Protect significant features of recreational value.
  • Disperse recreational use over the area in an ecologically sensitive manner.
  • Ensure compatibility of recreational activities throughout the area.
WADF is also a learning forest where new knowledge gained from operations and research are shared through field tours, Extension Notes, Open Houses and other sources.

Wildcrafting activities can be divided into four general categories: recreational, personal use, supplying local markets; and supplying commercial markets. In WADF, the intent is to:
  • Recognize wildcrafting as an ongoing forest use of local significance.
  • Identify which species occur or are suspected to occur on a site.
  • Maintain the resource, and incorporate wildcrafting opportunities into the forest management process