This is a summary of Identified Wildlife Management Strategy ’s second part Accounts and Measures for Managing Identified Wildlife following on the first part Procedures for Managing Identified Wildlife.
Introduction
Identified Wildlife are defined as species at risk and regionally important wildlife, labeled by the Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection as requiring special management attention under the Forest and Range Practices Legislation. All of these species at risk are either defined as endangered, threatened or vulnerable, whereas regionally important species depend on unprotected habitats, which are therefore vulnerable to forest and range impacts. The goal of the Identified Wildlife Management Strategy (IWMS) is to offer direction, policy, procedures and guidelines for managing Identified Wildlife in order to minimize the effects of forest and range practices. The IWSM is intended to be a tool, which may be used to manage or recover species habitats. Furthermore, it is an important step toward responsible stewardship of Identified Wildlife as it balances both socioeconomic considerations and conservation of BC’s species at risk.
By establishing wildlife habitat areas (WHAs), Identified Wildlife can be managed through implementing General Wildlife Measures (GWMs). The reason for creating WHAs is to conserve habitats that are considered to be most limiting to a given species as they are crucial for its survival. Those may be places such as feeding lakes for birds, which need to be located near the breeding site and provide appropriate nourishment; human disturbance in these areas should be kept on a minimum level.
GWMs define a level of management suiting the conservation status of Identified Wildlife. The Identified Wildlife that is listed in the publication was selected by evaluating and ranking all species at risk. Priority was determined by considering the relative conservation risk as well as the relative risk from forest and range management. Further, global and provincial status were incorporated.
In order to consistently manage Identified Wildlife, every species is indexed after an account template. The accounts include the species’ English and scientific names, their general information and a conservation and management evaluation.
The species information section provides facts about the species’ taxonomy, its description, life history, habitat and distribution. The latter offers information about the global and BC distributions, forest regions and districts, ecoprovince and ecosections, biogeoclimatic ecosystem units as well as elevation.
Furthermore, the conservation and management section includes the s tatus subsection, which indicates the relative importance of conservation in British Columbia and can be used to prioritize regional and provincial management. The section also covers p opulation and habitat trends along with p opulation and habitat threats . In addition to this, legal protection and habitat conservation are described and wildlife provisions are identified. Those provisions involve sustainable management and planning recommendations, wildlife habitat area plans and general wildlife measures. The current issue of the Identified Wildlife Management covers more than 50 animal species and plant communities, and the list is continually growing with prioritized species.
- Source British of Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection. 2004. Identified Wildlife Management Strategy Accounts and Measures for Managing Identified Wildlife Southern Interior Forest Region Version 2004. Available at : http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/frpa/iwms/documents/Accounts_and_Measures_South.pdf [Accessed 03/2021].