[Community Watershed Guidebook Table of Contents]
Unmanaged range activity can degrade water quality in community watersheds. Fecal contamination of streams, trampling of streambanks and reduction in the amount of stabilizing streamside vegetation can reduce water quality measurable.
Range activities in community watersheds can be acceptable provided livestock's use of the riparian zone is well managed. The direction provided in this section is intended to reduce water quality impacts in community watersheds by restricting certain range activities in the riparian area. There are no specific guidelines dealing with upland range management.
Requirements:
- Livestock must be removed from Crown range in a community watershed and not allowed to re-enter the community watershed, if their previous use has caused the water quality to fail to meet the objectives established by BC Environment. If the district manager and designated environment official agree that sufficient remedies have been taken to prevent the reduction of water quality from recurring, livestock may re-enter the community watershed.
- Livestock must not be allowed to use riparian areas of community watersheds if the use would result in fecal deposits, trampling of vegetation or exposure of mineral soil to an extent that the district manager determines to be detrimental.
- Range developments in community watersheds must not be placed to encourage livestock use within 50 m of a stream.
- Range cabins and livestock corrals must not be built within 50 m of a stream.
- Dead livestock must be moved a minimum of 100 m from a stream within 24 hours of discovery.
- The district manager must approve any constructed livestock trail crossing a stream in a community watershed.
The required contents of a range use plan are listed in the Operational Planning Regulation> and in the Range Management Guidebook. The following information is always required for range plans in community watersheds and lets users plan to the target conditions above:
- community watershed boundaries [4]
- all streams shown on the 1:20 000 scale forest cover map (but it is not necessary to classify the streams for riparian class)
- all known riparian sensitive sites and restricted areas (as defined below) and the strategies for minimizing or restricting livestock use from those areas
- existing plant communities (per cent of potential natural community or desired plant community) in riparian areas [5]
- desired plant communities in riparian areas and strategies for achieving them [6]
- measures to prevent cattle congregating in riparian areas, and the locations of livestock developments such as watering troughs, salting areas and exclusion fencing
- measures to ensure that water quality is not degraded at the intake of known domestic water intakes as a result of fecal contamination or sedimentation of streams or lakes caused by livestock (see section 5 "Water quality monitoring")
- measures to prevent destabilization of streambanks, lakeshores and reservoir shores by livestock, so that the target conditions can be maintained
- measures to limit soil surface exposure, compaction and erosion, so that the target conditions can be maintained.
Finding the cause of water quality degradation is more difficult than proving its occurrence. For information on setting water quality objectives and conducting a full-scale water monitoring program, refer to section 5 "Water quality monitoring." For information on sampling water quality, refer to the Resource Inventory Committee publications, Ambient Fresh Water and Effluent Sampling Manual and the Sediment Sampling Manual.
Where range use is shown to cause water quality parameters to exceed water quality objectives or criteria, livestock must be removed from the watershed until the designated environmental official and the district manager are satisfied that remedies are completed. In most cases, the remedies prevent livestock concentrations or overuse of riparian areas and rehabilitate riparian areas that have been impacted. Water quality should return to acceptable levels before livestock return to the watershed. If water quality deteriorates immediately after livestock return, permanently excluding livestock from the watershed should be considered.
- Livestock must not be allowed to deposit feces, trample vegetation or expose mineral soil around riparian areas so much that the district manager determines it detrimental. Concentrations of cattle as evidenced through large amounts of feces around streambanks or in the stream, heavy riparian foraging, and obvious excessive bank disturbance are indicators of detrimental impact. See the target conditions at the beginning of this section for measurable criteria of excessive amounts of feces or disturbance levels.
- The most sensitive riparian areas are those near the community water intake.
- Riparian areas within 1 km of the intake should be restricted to light occasional use. A 30-m wide band on each side of the stream, for a distance 1 km above the intake, should be managed to prevent contamination from cattle defecating directly into the stream or from runoff of fecal deposits close to the stream. The 30-m zone should be widened where site conditions would contribute to direct runoff into the stream. Examples are steep, wet slopes directly above the stream, floodplains with soft alluvial sediments and high water tables, and areas with very sparse riparian vegetation cover.
- Identify sensitive riparian areas in the range use plan, and adopt measures to ensure only light occasional use. The target conditions list vegetation, soil disturbance and fecal criteria to assess whether light occasional use is maintained. If livestock cannot be managed to this level, then sites of livestock congregation within the sensitive riparian area should be fenced.
- Range developments (e.g., watering, salting, corrals) should be placed to draw livestock away from riparian areas. Specific guidelines and regulations are described below.
Livestock watering facilities must not be within 50 m of a stream. For information on suitable watering facilities, see the British Columbia Livestock Watering Manual, available from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Roads and trails for range management must not be within 50 m of a stream except where they are needed to cross these areas. Roads and trails must be built to the standards in the Forest Road Engineering Guidebook.
Salt blocks are not permitted within 50 m of a stream. Place them as far as possible (ideally more than 400 m) from reservoirs and streams.
Plan fence locations to ensure that cattle are not drawn into and trapped in the riparian area. Where a fence right-of-way must cross a riparian area, use barricades to discourage livestock access to the stream.
Corrals should be as far from streams as is practical, and must not be within 50 m of any stream. Drainage from corrals should not flow into any stream, lake or other water body. Drainage should be directed to a vegetated area away from water bodies, to percolate into the soil.
Range cabins and outhouses must not be within 50 m of a stream. This is to prevent fecal contamination of water. Previously constructed cabins are not subject to this regulation, but removing or relocating them is encouraged.
Where a trail must cross a stream, select a stream-crossing location with a stable channel and banks to minimize channel and bank disturbance. Crossings should be on culverts or bridges, or on fords approved by the district manager.
A ford should only be used on a natural gravel or rock bed with stable streambanks, where cattle will not disrupt the stream bed or banks. Sites not suitable for fords include overhanging banks, silt or fine sand banks, silt or sand stream beds, and areas of channel instability. This does not apply to random undeveloped cattle trails. However, there should be a constructed stream crossing at each heavily used natural stream crossing.
Developed trails include any livestock trail that has been cut or excavated to let livestock move. Any machine-cut right-of-way or stock trail in the vicinity of a stream must maintain natural drainage patterns and minimize soil erosion.
Forest fires that burn over extensive areas can threaten water values in a community watershed. Forest fires and clearcutting affect water quantity in similar ways: they expose large areas to increased rates of snowmelt and streams to higher peak flows. A hot burn can result in hygroscopic or "water repellent" soils and thus increase run-off from the land. When a burn removes the forest floor, sediment and nutrients can be suspended from the burned area for up to three years following the burn.
Fire fighting activities affect water quality more often than fire itself. Specific regulations and procedures guide fire fighting activities throughout the province. However, it may be necessary to modify certain tactics in order to protect water supply in community watersheds.
The purpose of this field guide is to minimize the potential negative effects of fire suppression activities on water supply in community watersheds, without compromising effective wildfire control.
Fire preparedness means determining when, where, and at what levels resources must be deployed to meet anticipated fire loads, and when to trigger prevention patrols, forest-use restriction orders, air patrols, lookouts, and stand-by of initial attack resources. Given the values at risk in a community watershed, fire preparedness is particularly important. Because of the speed at which people must make decisions during a fire, a checklist or flowchart containing items listed in the guidelines is an expedient method of protecting water resource values.
The district fire management plan should identify community watershed boundaries and reference maps should show community watersheds as areas having specific guidelines and requiring special consideration in the event of a fire.
The map of each community watershed should show:
- water intakes
- a list of water purveyor staff available for consultation
- areas where unstable or erosion-prone soils require special fire-control practices
- areas with restrictions on stream fording by heavy or motorized equipment
- predetermined sites for fire camps, if they have been identified
- the location and extent of sensitive stream reaches
- other sensitive sites identified by the district manager.
All fires that require heavy equipment, large scale mixing operations, or fire camps should have a fire control plan.
Fire control plans for fires within community watersheds should consider the hydrological sensitivity of the watershed. Considerations include: size of the watershed (watersheds less than 10 km2 are very sensitive to fire impacts) and extensive areas of fine-grained soils. (Soil surface erosion hazard maps and terrain stability maps are available for all community watersheds after 1998—use these maps to identify areas of erosive soils.)
The district fire management plan should include a contact list of advisors in case fire control action is required in areas of unstable or erodible terrain. The list should include geomorphology, engineering, hydrology, and pedology personnel from both inside and outside the Ministry of Forests.
Managing fuel is a key component of fire prevention. It involves assessing the fire hazard and fuel loading in natural and managed stands and may involve burning the site (e.g., prescribed burn), manually removing the understorey (e.g., de-limbing) or creating fuel breaks.
- Undertake a'Fire Risk Assessment' and a 'Values at Risk Assessment" for all proposed harvest areas and previously harvested areas. Use schedule 7 in the Forest Fire Prevention and Suppression Regulation.
- Community watershed status adds 4 points to the 29 points required for a high risk category.
- Undertake a fire hazard assessment for all planned and previously harvested areas within a community watershed. All cutblocks must have a fire hazard assessment within 30 days after the end of timber harvesting. A fire hazard exists when the hazard assessment points are greater than 14 and the fire risk exceeds 24 points or the values at risk exceed 29 points (schedule 7, Forest Fire Prevention and Suppression Regulation).
- The maximum contiguous disturbance area within a community watershed should be 200 ha until it becomes fire resistant.
- Contiguous disturbed areas should be separated by fire resistant areas that are no less than 400 m in width.
- Use prescribed burning in a community watershed only if other methods of fuel management (e.g., manual brush removal, construction of fuel breaks) are not feasible.
- Prescribed burning should occur away from riparian management areas. The most effective means of protecting these special management areas is to plan cutblocks and forest renewal so that burning is not required. However, if burning is both necessary and feasible, special measures such as pre-burning or sprinklers are recommended.
- Burning plans should include protective measures to prevent fire from escaping during prescribed burning.
- Before beginning fire control actions, all suppression personnel should know they are operating within a community watershed and be aware of the special fire control measures required.
- Three years after community watershed designation, soil surface erosion hazard maps and terrain stability maps will be a requirement of the forest development plan. Use these maps to identify erosive soils.
- To minimize the potential for sediment erosion into streams, locate excavated fireguards as much as possible away from areas of known surface erosion or terrain stability hazards.
- If possible, restrict heavy equipment in sensitive soil areas identified on the community watershed map.
- Locate stream crossings to minimize streambed disturbance and siltation. Where feasible, install stream crossing structures. Avoid repeated fording of heavy equipment through streams.
- If circumstances permit, avoid using fire fighting chemicals.
- Avoid aerial application of fire fighting chemicals within 30 m and ground application within 15 m of any streamside, riparian or lakeshore management area.
- Locate all large-scale mixing operations in community watersheds at approved sites.
- Locate large-scale mixing operations a minimum of 60 m from the nearest natural water source, and use containment berms or structures capable of retaining 110 per cent of mixed fire fighting chemicals.
- Make a spill prevention and response plan for all large-scale mixing operations. Personnel operating the mixing unit should be knowledgeable in procedures for preventing and responding to spills.
- Make every reasonable effort to recover spilled chemicals and remove them from the site or use them on the fire line.
- Collect residual quantities of mixed chemicals from the mix and dip tanks, wash water from pumps, hoses, tanks and berms, and any spilled chemicals, and dispose of them safely.
- Notify all personnel working within a community watershed that the area is sensitive.
- Fire camps within community watersheds should include self-contained latrines, to be emptied outside the watershed.
- Remove all garbage from the fire camp and dispose of it outside the community watershed.
The purpose of rehabilitation operations following a fire in a community watershed is to restore the hydrology of the area, where feasible, and prevent further damage to the water resource. The fire centre staff prepares a fire rehabilitation plan in consultation with district staff, and the district manager approves it. The fire rehabilitation plan is required within 10 days of fire suppression so that rehabilitation can be carried out before removing equipment.
- A rehabilitation plan should address water quality, erosion control, hazard reduction, insects and disease, future access and damage to improvements.
- Fire guards and fire trails should be fully rehabilitated.
- Trees pushed into stream channels, lakes or ponds as a result of building fire guards or fire trails should be removed by skidding the entire tree free of the channel or bucking and removing it by section.
- The banks of stream crossings should be restored and stabilized by hand clearing fine particles and limbs. If large debris, logs and rocks cannot be removed without creating further damage, the material should be left in place.
- Reasonable efforts should be made to return fire camp sites to a natural state, and all garbage associated with the fire should be removed from the community watershed.
- Contaminated soil should be excavated and removed from mixing sites. In addition, earthen containment berms should be removed and the mixing site restored, where feasible, by sloping the sides and backfilling.
- Rehabilitation measures should be completed within 30 days after mop-up, unless adverse field conditions dictate otherwise.
- Rehabilitation of fire trails and fire guards should discourage access by vehicles so that future disturbance does not compromise erosion stabilization efforts.
- Any sites where chemicals (e.g., retardant) were handled should be inspected to ensure that chemicals will not enter a water course under any circumstances. It may be necessary to excavate and remove contaminated soil. In addition, earthen containment berms should be removed and the mixing site restored.
- During and after a fire, the water purveyor should monitor streams or lakes at the intake to determine the actual effects of the fire impact. The Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks should set a specified period of time for monitoring.
- Local fire managers should consider the effects on the community watershed revealed through watershed monitoring and incorporate the findings into future fire control strategies and operations.
