Bulkley Valley Research Centre - Science in the Public Interest

Cumulative Impacts Monitoring and Management in the Skeena

Project Reference Number: 2016-08

Project Status: Multi-year/Continuing

Led by: Don Morgan, Bulkley Valley Research Centre and BC Ministry of Environment, Smithers, BC

Funder: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

This project aims to develop a collaborative approach to collecting, assessing, monitoring and disseminating salmon habitat data and knowledge in the Skeena region of British Columbia.

The four main outcomes of the project are:

1. Government agencies, First Nations and wild salmon supporters enabled to assess cumulative impacts to wild salmon ecosystems from potential shifts in climate and hydrological regimes coupled with proposed resource development plans in the Skeena watershed.
2. Government agencies, First Nations and wild salmon advocates enabled to use habitat benchmarks for assessing risk of industrial development on salmon habitat.
3. Integration of watershed-scale assessment data into government and First Nations decision-making (demonstrated for key Skeena tributaries).
4. Alternative institutional mechanism established to enable ongoing government, First Nations and public access to the best available information to support natural resource decision-making.