[Interior Watershed Assessment Procedure Guidebook Table of Contents]

Appendix 7.

Identification of fish-bearing stream reaches and potential stream temperature concerns

Fish-bearing streams: All streams or portions of streams that contain anadromous fish, game fish (as defined under the B.C. Sports Fishing Regulations), or other regionally significant species, and rare or endangered species.

In addition, the Forest Practices Code defines a fisheries sensitive zone as:

Aquatic environment important for the life history of fish, including areas that may not be defined as streams. May include side and flood channels, swamps, seasonally flooded depressions, lake spawning areas, or estuaries.

Temperature concerns

As mentioned in the channel change section (Appendix 10), stable vegetated banks provide cover for fish as well as shade, which helps regulate water temperature. In certain streams, water temperature is critical to the life cycle of various fish. A small rise in temperature could have a detrimental effect on the fisheries. Consequently, maintaining adequate shade on these systems is very important. Fisheries biologists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and from the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks should be contacted when a watershed analysis is done on a fisheries sensitive stream. These individuals can help establish whether the stream that is being analyzed is sensitive or not to changes in stream temperature-essential information in determining the watershed constraints.

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