INTRODUCTION
Mountain goats have been identified as a monitoring priority for the Babine Watershed
Monitoring Trust (BWMT) for the last two years. In 2007, the BWMT initiated a background
review to gather information and/or data made available after the inception of the Monitoring
Framework in 2004 (Project 2007–3). The Monitoring Framework is designed to determine the
effectiveness of strategies (and associated indicators or targets) set out in the land-use plans for
the Babine watershed (Price and Daust 2005). The intention of the BWMT is to continually
update the framework with new data as they become available, and then reassess monitoring
priorities.
The purpose of this project was to develop a current harvest and road database relevant to
mountain goats within the Babine watershed. Once collected, road and harvest data were
analysed for increasing buffer widths around the Ungulate Winter Ranges (UWRs) and Mapped
Habitats used to manage goat habitat and goat populations within the Babine watershed. This
information was then used to reduce uncertainty for the preliminary risk curves created in 2004.
Eventually, the results of this project will be used to update the mountain goat portion of the
monitoring framework, and to reassess indicators currently in use to meet the objectives
established in the land-use plans.
