Stream Identification

[Bill Johnson]

One of the most common things we have happen around here, is that someone will encounter a previously unidentified stream usually when laying out block access or during harvesting activies.

After much nashing of teeth and pulling of hair it was decided to provide some of the logging contractors and some of the Government staff with local training for identifying streams.

The package was jointly developed by the local forest industry and MNR forest staff as well as biologist.  It essentially deals with how to identify 3 types of streams....permanent, intermittent, and ephemeral.

The day includes site visits to each of the three types, group discussions including what type of crossing would be most appropriate and what level of protection (i.e. standing timber reserve usually 30M (100') or riparian 3m undisturbed) is most appropriate. Things taken into consideration include size of what shed, thermal coding of the water (cool vs cold) slope etc.

Ideally we would prefer to do these sessions during the driest months (as water flowing then is most likely permanent flows) but so far we've managed to have both this year's session and last year's in November 

 

In this shot, most of the group is looking at small permanent stream that was crossed by this road, an 18" culvert was installed.  This year we over 30 people attend the session.

This session is set up to deal with streams that do not show up on maps so can not be planned for during forest management plan development.

[SwampDonkey]

The Maritime School of Forest Technology has been putting on a similar course to certify individuals out there to install crossing on streams instead of loggers and woodlot owners having to go through a 30 day assessment from DOE staff. These folks are on site during installations, and make out the paperwork to send to DOE. I think it's mostly for crown and freehold operations, but I know a couple of staff members from our local marketing board are certified to help woodlot owners and private wood producers. The course has been developed for the Maritime provinces. I think it's $800, but it may have jumped to $1200 by now. It's four days of class and field and exam the fifth. I was going to take the course myself, but as soon as I found out that DOE isn't making on site certified installers mandatory, I knew most woodlot owners would go with the old way of waiting it out with DOE.

[Bill Johnson]

What is really good about these sessions is we try and get both the forest industry, MNR compliance staff and MNR bios involved.  It really helps to open people's eyes when the see what these guys encounter on a regular basis in the field. 

There tends to be a lot of good discussion between especially between equipment operators and the bios as they discuss "what if" scenarios especially when discussing winter operations when you really ( at least here) can't see or hear these little piddly flows.

By having folks take these sessions the bio's feel a little more confident letting these guys make decisions on their own when they encounter these streams.

[SwampDonkey]

On the west coast when we were doing block and road layout, on most sites the streams were brand new and never identified or classified before. We had folks trapping the creeks for fish ID, others were mapping out the creeks and taking measurements and others where designing roads. I did do a few traverses of creeks, but never did any trapping because you needed to be certified or permitted and such to use those electric shock units to stun the fish. I did do a lot of gully assessment work following training, which was all part of the hydrology work that goes into block layout in coastal BC. It's a lot more expensive out there to layout a block than it is in NB. And I've seen ephemeral creeks and pools here on crown operations ignored when there were 20" inch + spruce trees around them. Granted some of these pools can be worked around, but who knows how significant they really are to down stream environments. I've seen streams with sandy bottoms that glittered like gold in the sun, soon to be silted by logging practices, sometimes 4 miles up stream. I know one such stream that would be on the surface and then all the sudden disappear, then come back to surface a few hundred meters down stream. About the only way you could follow it was by the vegetation growing next to it, usually alder and ferns.

[Bill Johnson]

Lack of classification for thermal coding was one of our field discussions during the first year, it was jointly decided that watersheds would be used to determine the coding.  As it turned out usually at least one major waterway in a watershed had been classified and so far the system has been working.  In the event we ever end up with a watershed where no classification has taken place it was agreed that the most restrictive classification would be the default, in this case cold water.

Timing restrictions for in water work are in place for cold water from Sept. 1 to June 15 annually and for cool water from April 1 to June 20th.