Mountain Caribou

  Updated May 2006

A portion of Downie Timber's operating area is located within the habitat of the Revelstoke and Central Rockies Mountain caribou herds. Two land use plans and legal Higher Level Plan Orders guide Forest management within caribou habitat. Forest Development Plans/ Forest Stewardship Plans provide additional information.

NEW for 2006!

• In 2006 the caribou forest retention mapping project was completed which spatially identifies ‘no harvest areas’ within Downie Timber’s operating area. The project was initiated in 2004 by Downie who commissioned local caribou herd experts (biologists) to spatially identify the most important caribou habitat located within the Revelstoke Timber Supply Area (TSA) in a project titled ‘Caribou/Biodiversity Spatial Mapping Project’. The Integrated Land Management Bureau has since incorporated this work into their planning database (Fretwell suite/resultant files) and Downie Timber is now spatially managing for caribou values.
   
• In 2006 the Integrated Land Management Bureau completed a draft biodiversity project with assistance from Downie Timber and other licensees. This mapping project spatializes the Revelstoke Higher Level Plan Order biodiversity requirements for old and mature forests within Downie Timber’s operating area and the Revelstoke TSA. As a result, Downie Timber is now spatially managing for caribou habitat and biodiversity values throughout the landscape and has incorporated this into their Forest Stewardship Plans. Detailed maps are available for viewing at the Downie office.
   
• A report titled Candidate Mid-seral Stands for Spacing/Pruning Treatments to Improve Caribou Permeability (Serrouya 2006) was prepared for Downie Timber in February 2006. Landscape Unit R14 (Kirbyville) was assessed for candidate mid-seral (10-80 yrs old) forest stands that could be spaced and/or pruned for the purpose of facilitating caribou movement and sightability. Since the release of the report several of the identified stands have been pruned.
   
• The Population Censuses of Caribou in the North Columbia Mountains - (McLellan, Serrouya, Flaa; March 30, 2006) is now available.

Downie Timber Ltd. and Selkirk Cedar Ltd. caribou management strategies are:

• Exceed the legal forest management requirements
• Conduct landscape and stand level planning
• Implement caribou friendly silvicultural systems where appropriate
• Develop strategies that decrease the amount of early seral ungulate (deer/moose) habitat
• Access planning
• Practice adaptive management
• Fund caribou and related research projects
• Participate in the North Kootenay Recovery Action Group (NKRAG) and Revelstoke Caribou Committee
• Involved in caribou education programs

Additional caribou management strategies voluntarily adopted by Downie Timber in the fall of 2004 are:

• Implemented a minimum 2-year harvesting moratorium in Downie’s operating area located within the ‘Downie creek-Mt. Revelstoke caribou herd’ area.
• All new harvest areas will be reviewed by a qualified biologist and recommendations will be incorporated into operational plans
• Approved cutblocks (Category ‘A’) located within important caribou habitat will be dropped, relocated or revised. To date, 4 Cutting Permit blocks and 6 Category ‘A’ blocks have been dropped.
• Downie has adjusted its short term harvesting program to keep out of mapped caribou habitat as identified by the current land use plans wherever possible so that the in progress ‘science team’ work is not unduly compromised.

Caribou Predators

Cougar
Courtesy Brian Glaicar
watch video
Courtesy Jim Greeno
   

Management Practices

• Causes of Caribou mortalities in the Columbia Mountains: see the Caribou mortality statistics. (95KB PDF)
• For detailed Mountain caribou information check out the compilation summary titled ‘Mountain Caribou in the North Columbia Mountains North of Hwy #1’ (5.5MB PDF).
  In addition, refer to the Mountain Caribou Compendium available here which contains over 125 abstracts of documents related to Mountain caribou research and management.
• Expert Panel Predator/Prey/Habitat Findings & Recommendations. Downie Timber and Selkirk Cedar endorses the recommendations of this report. Click here for the final report. (228KB PDF)
• Want to report a caribou sighting in the North Kootenay and Revelstoke area? Click here.
• Visit the Revelstoke Caribou Recovery Committee (www.cityofrevelstoke.com/caribou) website for interesting information.
• Mechanisms Underlying the Decline of Mountain Caribou in BC- Heiko Wittmer 2004 (1MB PDF)
• Forest Practices Board Mountain Caribou Report 2004 (674KB PDF)
• Factors Influencing the Dispersion & Fragmentation of Endangered Mountain Caribou Populations - Apps & McLellan 2006 (919KB PDF)
• Population Dynamics of the Endangered Mountain Ecotype of Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in British Columbia, Canada - Wittmer, McLellan, Seip, Young, Kinley, Watts, Hamilton 2005 (400KB PDF)
• Candidate Mid-seral Stands for Spacing/Pruning Treatments to Improve Caribou Permeability - R Serrouya; February 27, 2006  (400KB PDF)
• Population Censuses of Caribou in the North Columbia Mountains - McLellan, Serrouya, Flaa; March 30, 2006  (400KB PDF)