INTRODUCTION
The Babine Watershed is located 65 km north of Smithers and 30 km north of Hazelton BC, with the Babine River being a tributary to the Skeena River. The Babine River has been subject of much interest regarding land management due to its high value resources, including excellent steelhead angling, large sockeye salmon run, excellent river rafting and timber resources. This project was commissioned by the Babine Watershed Monitoring Trust, as part of its mandate to monitor the effectiveness of land management plans covering the Babine Watershed. These management plans are focussed on either the Bulkley Timber Supply Area in the east or the Kispiox Timber Supply Area in the west, each of which cover a portion of the Babine Watershed (Figure 1). The Babine Watershed covers 402,435 ha.
The Babine Watershed Monitoring Trust looks at whether plan strategies are effective at meeting plan objectives and goals (Price and Daust 2005). This indicator data summary project is looking at indicators for the goals of Biodiversity, Maintaining Timber Supply and Maintaining Water Quality. The specific were selected because the Babine Watershed Monitoring Trust has insufficient data to assess the risk to the objectives. Most of these indicators are mentioned in the Babine Landscape Unit Plan (1999), Nilkitkwa Landscape Unit Plan (1999) and the Xsu gwin lik’l’inswx: West Babine
Sustainable Resource Management Plan (SRMP) (Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management 2004).
Specifically the indicators being analyzed are: for Biodiversity - deciduous stands, tree species and stand structure (reserve area); for Maintain Timber Supply - timber salvage, and for Maintain Water Quality - equivalent clearcut area (Table 1).
