MOUNT ROBSON PROVINCIAL PARK ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT PLAN

Case Study Evaluation

Group 8: Tim Greene, Shalene Hayes, Kristen Ramsey, Mike Vanek

Section 1.0 HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

The Mount Robson Provincial Park ecosystem management plan was designed due to the findings in a previous park master plan. The master plan uncovered the need for management objectives in the park. The ecosystem management plan is based on a report, which contains an ecological inventory and description of management options. In concluding the previous master plan, it was discovered that there was a need for a vegetation management plan for the long term that would address a series of issues (Oikos et. al. 1996). The vegetation management plan, which is the main management objective of the master plan, is the focus or foundation for the ecosystem management plan. The master plan provides a basic ecosystem overview and gives a general inventory of the ecosystem with a framework of maps. This information was to be integrated into a comprehensive ecological context with the use of a GIS ecosystem framework. In the end, the discovered needs, were developed into an ecosystem management plan to deal with issues of foremost concern (Oikos et. al. 1996).

This decision to develop an ecosystem management plan sparked the need to focus on issues found in the ecological inventory that would reflect the resource values of the park. The plan coordinators felt that fire management, forest health, biodiversity conservation, and wildlife habitat stability were the major concerns in the park. The issues include the mountain pine beetle, which influences the health of the park. When the mountain pine beetle populations rise to an outbreak, not only does the park lose much of its aesthetic value, but fire hazards increase, as does the risk of infecting neighboring parks. The spruce beetle can cause the same amount of devastation to a forest, but instead of lodge-pole pine, these beetles attack spruce trees (Oikos et. al. 1996). Though excessive mortality of trees can be a fire hazard, if moderately infested, spruce beetles provide a well-rounded forest by creating small gaps where new growth can start, snags where animals eat the larvae, and lichen blooms for caribou. Caribou are the most threatened animal in this ecosystem. Snow becomes too deep so that lichen is difficult to find, and wolf predation is at a maximum. In addition to wolf predation, animals traveling along the corridor are subject to vehicle and train collision. Historically, fires were prevalent during the construction of the railway through the park. In the early 1900’s fires burned stands of trees adjacent to the railway (Oikos et. al. 1996). Now, human ignition poses a high threat to the travel corridor, where human density is abundant. Fire prevention is necessary along the corridor, but is greatly needed throughout the rest of the park to retain a productive fire cycle (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Section 2.0 DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT AREA:

Mount Robson Provincial Park is located along the Alberta-British Columbia border, next to the Jasper National Park, on the west side of the Rocky Mountains. It is 219,534 hectares and includes pieces of the Alpine Tundra, Englemann Spruce-Subalpine Fir, Sub-Boreal Spruce, and Interior Cedar Hemlock. The Travel Corridor consists of 1% of the park. The Yellowhead highway, the Canadian National Railway, and the Trans-Mountain Oil Pipeline all use the corridor. It also is used between British Columbia and Alberta as a travel route; therefore it has the highest human impact (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Section 3.0 GENERAL MANAGEMENT GOAL:

The designers of this plan have identified that they would like to permit the ecological processes that occur naturally, but that certain constraints such as general values, safety, and the protection of biological diversity prohibit this “no action” desire (Oikos et. al. 1996). The understanding is that a naturally occurring environment would be ideal, but that people are involved here, or “embedded in nature”, and adjacent management objectives of neighbors will need to be recognized. Groups involved with timber resources and recreation need to be considered, if insects, diseases, and fires are not managed appropriately then there could be significant losses and issues with public safety (Oikos et. al. 1996).

To accomplish management decisions the territory has been divided into 4 ecosystem management zones. These zones have been created and denoted by specific characteristics. The identifiable characteristics used in dividing up the region for similar attributes include areas with analogous management constraints, comparable vegetative management approaches, boundaries based on significant landmarks such as lakes and rivers, and topographic breaks that can be used for quick ground identification (Oikos et. al. 1996). Precise boundaries may need to be changed as work is conducted in these areas and more information is gathered when strategies are implemented. The 4 regions are the suppression zone, prescription zone, travel corridor zone, and natural zone.

There are a host of factors that constrain the ideal option for no action, which would allow ecological processes to continue unimpeded. The management issues to deal with this problem, while protecting and preserving the land, will be aimed towards conserving biodiversity, management of forest fires, forest health issues, and wildlife health issues.

Section 4.0 OBJECTIVES WITHIN ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT ZONES:

4.1 EMZ 1: Suppression Zone

The actions taken regarding biological conservation in the suppression zone are full suppression of fire, as well as an inventory of the rare and endangered plant and animal species that occurs in this area (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Fuels will be surveyed and a fuel hazard reduction plan will be developed for all areas surrounding important facilities and structures. Areas of blowdown will be monitored for fire hazard after blowdown has occurred. Actions will also be taken in conjunction with other agencies Forest District Protection Staff and CFS fire specialists to assess and evaluate the most effective management approaches. These management options include: removal of surface and standing aerial fuels, prescribed burning of fuel accumulations under controlled conditions, low intensity surface burns that can reduce overall stand hazard, and manipulation of stand structure and composition to improve stand stability and to reduce fuel accumulation. An inventory of resources and vegetation in neighboring areas will be conducted in order to determine protection strategies and to aid in the decision making process. The establishment of fire weather stations throughout the park will be introduced first to EMZ 1 (installed 1997). Forest Health will be monitored through aerial and ground surveys, and through the collection of stand descriptive data and will improve the accuracy of future hazard assessments. Determinations will be made if projected losses will be acceptable for the EMZ, the Park, and adjacent lands based on the results of the data collected from forest health monitoring. Outbreaks will be contained if they pose a significant threat, using tree or fall treatments, with or without pheromone baiting. Decreasing the probability of future outbreaks is another management objective, which will be planned accordingly (Oikos et. al. 1996).

4.2 EMZ 2: Prescription Zone

In order to address the biological conservation issues including inventories of rare plant and animal species inventories will be conducted, as will the development of procedures for conserving those species identified (Oikos et. al. 1996).

A database of daily fire and weather codes will be established and maintained; fire history indices were installed in 1997. Visitor location tracking and evacuation routes for a variety of fire scenarios will be established. There is to be involvement of the Park staff in research level prescribed burns, as well as education of fire behavior. This includes the development of prescriptions best suited for the fuel types in the area, and taking into account the current and future predicted weather conditions. A general inventory of fuel availability in neighboring areas, as well as an inventory of resources within those areas will be conducted in order to make sound decisions about whether or not to allow a fire to burn unchecked. Forest health will be monitored in the same fashion as in EMZ 1 (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Because the EMZ 2 serves as a winter and summer range for caribou, management actions involving wildlife focus mostly on maintaining forest habitat for this species. Within the summer caribou habitat forest fire will be suppressed to maintain the quality of ungulate habitat. Actions will be taken to, first, identify habitat requirements of wintering caribou, and second, to maintain and enhance the quality and quantity of the caribou winter range. There is also an ungulate summer range in this area, for which actions will be taken to maintain and increase the quality and quantity of the habitat. The Biodiversity Conservation Area within EMZ 2 will be managed to maintain its present composition by permitting wildfires to burn under prescriptions, yet to be developed for the zone (Oikos et. al. 1996).

4.3 EMZ 3: Natural Zone

The natural zone of the park will be monitored for wildfires and other disturbances, and the ecosystem inventory database will be updated as necessary. An important action concerning biological diversity in this zone, as within the other EMZs, is conducting an inventory of rare and endangered species and their habitats within the zone in order to determine their extent. Major fire actions in this area will be used primarily to obtain the ability to understand and model fire behavior for the fuel types present in the park and to develop a better understanding of those ecosystems, which require fire processes for maintenance within this zone. Actions taken to deal with the issue of wildlife in this zone will involve continued inventory of species and habitat use, especially of rare and important species. Forest health will be dealt within the same fashion as the previous two EMZ’s (Oikos et. al. 1996).

4.4 EMZ 4: Travel Corridor Zone

Due to the large influx of non-native species into this area, an inventory of all non-natives and where they occur will be conducted, especially where they pose a significant threat to natural ecosystems. Guidelines for future development using native vegetation will be outlined, and public education will be conducted in order to inform the public about the hazards of these species. An inventory of rare and endangered plants and animals will be conducted; conservation strategies will be utilized where needed (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Since this area contains a campground and visitor facilities surrounded by highly susceptible lodgepole pine stands and fuel storage facilities, a buffer will be created between the visitor areas and the forest and the fuel and other flammables will be stored in fire proof sheds. Coarse woody debris will also be reduced in order to lower fire potential. Pruning, thinning and reduction of crown continuity will also reduce fire hazard in the dense forest areas containing campgrounds (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Forest Health is a major issue in the Travel Corridor due to the high hazard stands located within, or adjacent to this area. The management actions in this area will be the same as for the Suppression Zone (EMZ 1). Wildlife is of great concern in this area. A major issue is road kills on the highway and on the railway ROWs. Due to the significant data available on highway ROWs detailed management actions have been outlined for it (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Section 5.0 OVERALL MANAGEMENT ISSUES:

For biodiversity conservation, the objective is not so much to protect a list of plant and animal species, but to protect the ecosystems they are involved with, including their active ecological processes. The park covers 4 biogeoclimatic zones including forest, non-forest, sub-montane, and elevated alpine (Oikos et al 1996).

The forest fire management plan that will be conducted in the park will hopefully allow for fire cycles to occur naturally over the largest possible land area, just as long as it doesn’t affect public safety. The parks forested composition, including the age class structures of the forests and those species, is determined by and shaped through time most significantly by the disturbance of fire. Fire, at the lower elevations, was most significant in the past during the period of railway construction around 1900. These areas can be found in the suppression zone. The continuity of structure of the even aged stands has been maintained through fire suppression in the area. Due to this suppression, the distribution of seral stages, or those ecological communities, and species in the stands do not represent the natural pattern of this landscape. In other areas, the stands are natural, although, fire suppression has allowed some of the stands to develop into old growth (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Forest health management will essentially focus on monitoring and suppressing insect epidemics, which primarily is the mountain pine beetle that attacks lodge pole pine. Natural beetle processes do occur and can reach epidemic levels, but outbreaks are exacerbated when management practices, unnatural as they are, benefit their spread. This is remarkably so in the case of the even aged lodge pole pine stand in the suppression zone. If the beetle were allowed to decimate an area such as this it would have significant ecological consequences and would most definitely be in contact with the abutting timber resources on commercial forest lands. The potential for this beetle to reach outbreak levels is the most serious health issue facing Mount Robson Park. The prevention and reduction of the mountain pine beetle is one the most important active management efforts. Actions are to be combined to form mutual benefits in the management process (Oikos et. al. 1996).

A division of the biodiversity conservation management effort is the park wildlife populations and their habitat. It is an issue that is to be integrated with forest fire and forest health management practices. This is important because the ecosystems that these populations utilize are largely shaped by human-impinged disturbances and natural disturbances. Populations of wildlife species are explicitly dependent upon the distribution of and composition of ecosystems within the park. The management of wildlife and the associated habitat is to be based on the care of diversity of the natural ecosystems that the populations make use of in the park. Due to human induced disturbances, such as fire, management efforts should be conducted to re-establish old growth forests, which would be abundant today. An old growth stand would be more able to support a strong wildlife population, and currently the even aged stand is beginning to develop some of the important characteristics that support populations. In the future, even aged stands will hopefully have more snags, coarse woody debris, and arboreal lichens (Oikos et. al. 1996).

Section 6.0 IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING:

The driving force of a plan is its strategic development and plan for implementation. The term of the Mount Robson Management Plan is 10 years with a formal review in year 5, and the major public strategic planning process to renew the plan will begin in year 8. An implementation committee of eight public members will meet twice every year with the Interagency Planning Team to monitor progress of implementation (Ministry web site).

Each year, the Interagency Management Committee (IAMC) will prepare a Mount Robson Management Plan Monitoring Report. It will include: (1) actions taken to conform with plan direction; (2) compliance with plan requirements; and, (3) instances of non-compliance and actions that may be taken to ensure compliance (Ministry web site). The report will gather available indicators on how well the plan is meeting stated objectives. This material will be referenced for the eight-year review and renewal process, or a major amendment process. Following release of the Monitoring Report, the IAMC will hold an annual meeting to review the report and solicit public comment. The meeting will be an opportunity for the public to raise issues that may require a plan update, or amendment of the plan. The Annual Monitoring Report will contain proposed plan amendments. The IAMC will approve plan updates. These changes include: (1) revision of wording; (2) small changes to boundaries or Resource Management Zones; (3) refinements to objectives and strategies suggested by plans at a lower level; (4) changes required to make the plan conform with provincial laws, regulations, or policies (Ministry web site).

Section 7.0 POSITIVE ASPECTS IN RELATION TO DOMINANT THEMES:

7.1 Hierarchical Context

The hierarchical context, as a dominant theme in ecosystem management, is important because when working at a desired scale, one must take into consideration how a single piece in the landscape fits or connects into the puzzle of different ecosystem scales. The managers and developers of this plan have observed this theme. This group has placed emphasis on how management concerns are aimed at each scale and how the scales together form a systems perspective. This ideal is apparent within the plan, for example, at certain landscape scales, where approaches have been aimed toward specific ecosystem management units. It is recognized that the units change with scale, but connect to one another. At the fine scale, the ROW corridors result in early seral communities, which are within a specific unit of the ecosystem management process. This type of community needs maintenance that relates to the management impacts directly affecting this zone. Their concerns for management have been placed in preservation of high quality wildlife in this zone, as well as the prediction for the potential of distribution of introduced plants that may invade such a site. At the intermediate scale, management concerns will be more focused on forest succession and the species compositional change, which in turn will provide information on what management process will benefit this seral stage and the future growth of the climax community. For the large scale, ecological integration with relation to inter park management issues can be used to manage the regional ecosystem framework. An example of this would be biogeoclimatic classification, which would be necessary for the overall park developmental plan process (Oikos et. al. 1996).

7.2 Humans embedded in Nature

Humans embedded in nature, as a dominant theme, has been considered and adapted rather well in conjunction with the plan. For example, the management objectives for the pipeline ROW, highway ROW, and railway ROW have integrated both the wildlife needs and the human needs for managing this area (Oikos et. al. 1996). As humans embedded in nature, we are constantly altering the vegetative habitat in these corridors for our infrastructure. Our actions in these areas will continue to influence ecological processes, such as ROW maintenance as an action, where vegetation will always need to be maintained. Another issue with humans embedded in nature deals with the role of fire. Management in some stands will require prescribed burning where they are physically interfering with natural cycles to perform techniques to manage for the success of the ecosystem. From the wildfires during the railway construction to the fire management techniques of today, for either positive or negative reasons, humans have and will continue to shape the natural environment with fire. In the case of fire during railway construction, the fires that burned and shaped the even aged stands have now constructed the fundamental ecological pattern that poses to be decimated by the mountain pine beetle (Oikos et. al. 1996). Allowing for natural fire cycles to occur as they would, cyclically, over the largest possible land area would be ideal, but public safety is a reality. Recreation is going to continue in the park and fires will occur. Management has taken this into consideration what is fair practice in allowable burns and what will jeopardize public well-being. Allowing recreation and reducing the impact of what it entails from mountain biking to hiking is necessary to insure people stay connected to their natural world provided that it can still be sustained (Oikos et. al. 1996).

7.3 Adaptive Management

As ROW’s, deal with the concerns of adaptive management, new techniques are being used in conjunction with the incorporated results from previous experiences. This allows flexibility when adapting actions that may have uncertain outcomes. One of them is to drive ungulate wildlife, such as moose and caribou, to more protected sites like the pipeline ROW to reduce the mortality of those ungulates in the transportation corridors.

These highly human disturbed areas at the park are in fact ecological communities, but the vegetative species in the corridors do not represent the natural pattern of this landscape. They are repeatedly cleared and managed to keep the area open for passage and utility. The species that colonize these sites are early successional species such as Salix, Vaccinium, and Cornus, which are palatable forage for the ungulates and other animals. These animals enter the transportation corridors to feed on the new growth and eventually end up crossing the road. It is believed that if more plants such as juniper were planted in the transportation corridor that the animals would stop feeding there. With this, if the palatable species were planted in the pipeline corridor, they would feed in this corridor and mortality numbers would drop.

The adapting to uncertainty becomes evident when new techniques such as barricading and redirects are placed to keep them away. This is done as trial and error, not knowing what their reaction may be. If the plan doesn’t work, then a new technique will be implemented. The plan has stated other possibilities of whole fencing or even the application of chemical repellants do discourage their foraging.

For the managers, it is a learning experience, which integrates ideology (Oikos et. al. 1996). This is picture 1, a moose moving through the transportation corridor.

7.4 The Dynamic View and Ecological Integrity:

A disturbance is equal to an ecosystem response. Ecosystems are strong and the biota that comprise them have evolved through time for better fitness, which improve their ability to recover after a disturbance. These may be physical, chemical, or biological attributes that add to their sustainability. The plan developers have recognized this fitness and ability to recover. The objectives reflect it. In some cases the management goal is to do nothing, where human intervention and treatments were commonplace but now defunct. The spruce beetle is known to attack, in groups, infesting large old growth trees in which it continues its lifecycle. In stands were the spruce beetle may become a problem, it is their understanding that whole infested large diameter trees should be left alone. Some of the management objectives in beetle infested sites call for cut and burn, but not in this case. It is accepted that these large diameter trees, even though infested with beetle galleries, will prove to become influential parts in the dynamic system. The trees will become homes for other predatory insects and birds, one of them being the woodpecker. The highest mortality rates for both the spruce and mountain pine beetle come at the larval stage and are caused by woodpecker feeding. Hypothetically, the tree becomes a possible home for fungus development and microbes either of which could form natural mutations with time and act as a natural enemy. The idea is that the system has its own form of checks and balances, and any outside management may disturb it even more. The large trees, or legacies left after the disturbance, are also homes for other biological systems such as lichen blooms for caribou food. The open area where the canopies used to be allows light for new tree growth and mycorrhizal colonies to fill in and aid adjacent trees with root development. In regards to this, they have accepted the model known as the Shifting Mosaic Steady State. Management objectives reflect that as new overall patches are formed, there is balance with maturation of older expansive stands. The belief is that the ecosystem is always going to represent constant proportions of similar age class stands and is naturally dynamic (Oikos et. al. 1996). In the picture, infected sitka spruce stands with high mortality in Canada. This is picture 2, large diameter trees in the background are great predator and parasite habitat to keep beetle populations in check naturally.

Section 8.0 NEGATIVE ASPECTS IN RELATION TO DOMINANT THEMES:

8.1 Data Collection and Monitoring

The integrated park researchers have and continue to partake in data collection and monitoring throughout zones in the park and with consideration to the 4 main management issues. This group is extremely diverse and includes wildlife specialists, forest ecosystem specialists, entomologists, wildlife biologists, vegetation ecologists, and resource specialists. It is definitely an integrated team and their expertise is thoroughly addressing issues with data collection. Let it be known this team brings in highly specialized methodology for coping with issues facing the team. Although, in some areas of the park entomologists and other specialists have suggested the use of pheromone traps, which are utilized as a monitoring technique, but tend to cause more harm then good. The two themes of monitoring and data collection are utilized well over all of the combined management issues, but in the case of forest health, methods may need to be amended. The mountain pine beetle, which is of major concern, is a species that could devastate this park in certain locations (Oikos et. al. 1996).

8.1.1 This is picture 3, of the beetle and the wilt disease associated:

Dendroctonus ponderosae (Scolytidae) mountain pine beetle

A blue-stain fungus is introduced into the conducting wood by the adult, which helps in the weakening of the tree. The fungus further blocks xylem tissues. The eggs hatch and the larvae feed on the now easily digestible wood weakened by the fungus. In the cambial zone galleries are formed. This insect is ranked as the most destructive of all bark beetles. In lodgepole pine, the mountain pine beetle infests mature forests. It often decimates them over wide ranges. In other host tree species, group killing on explosive scales occurs in both mature forests and in young stands (bark beetles website 2+3).

There are some proactive techniques being applied to monitor and eradicate the pest, such as individual tree cutting in burning and the monitoring of critical even aged homogenous stands. Although, one of the major flaws in the objectives lies in this mentioned monitoring technique of pheromone baiting, which more often exacerbates the problem then helps it. The use of these traps would draw populations of mountain pine beetle into stands and could cause new outbreaks in otherwise unaffected areas. These traps are used to attract the beetle with use of their pheromone, and their numbers are then documented. The definitive problem is that some are lost in the process and new populations can be created if females are in the stands releasing the pheromone as well. Also natural enemies recognize this pheromone as a natural cue and use it track down the beetle, and in turn get caught in the traps as well, which is a very serious problem (bark beetles web site 1). There are solutions, such as the introduction of predators and parasitic wasps into the system, which are a relatively inexpensive control method and cause one of the highest amounts of mortality (bark beetles web site 1).

8.2 Political Boundaries

A potential problem not mentioned in the management plan is the park’s geographic location. Mount Robson Provincial Park is located in eastern British Columbia with the park’s east and north boundary being British Columbia’s border with Alberta. The designers of the plan mention the need to collaborate with landowners in the immediate area outside park boundaries within British Columbia, but do not mention how to coordinate with landowners outside park boundaries in Alberta, whose wildlife management laws and goals differ. The Province of Alberta has recently approved a plan for an open-pit coal mine 1.8 km from the boundary of Mount Robson Park (World Conservation Monitoring Center website). The close proximity of the project site to the park could significantly impact the park’s goal of maintaining natural habitat conditions.

The designers of the plan also do not mention how they will coordinate with the Canada National Parks Service. Mount Robson Park’s entire eastern border with Alberta is composed of Jasper National Park, a federally managed park. Management goals for federal parks can differ dramatically from those for provincial parks and the close proximity of Mount Robson Park to Jasper National Park could have a drastic negative impact on management actions. Wildlife populations do not recognize political boundaries such as designated parks or provinces and their movement across these boundaries cannot be controlled if the goal of the park’s management plan is to maintain a “natural” community within mentioned management zones.

Section 9.0 CONCLUSION:

This plan, which was funded by BC parks, is a fine representation of an ecosystem management plan. As a group we feel that it has included many of the characteristics and variables that need to be considered in developing an ecosystem approach to management. The ideal of adaptive management is a reoccurring theme where managers are valuing continual learning through monitoring on a cyclic basis over the whole plan as a framework and in each zone. This plan shows that many agencies and academia groups are currently collaborating to solve problems on a proactive ecosystem basis.

Section 9.0 LITERATURE CITED:

- Oikos Ecological Services Ltd. et. al., March 1996. Mount Robson Ecosystem

Management Plan – Volume 2. BC Parks. Prince George District.

Bark Beetles of North America:

- 1 www.barkbeetles.org/Biocontrol/mountainpinebeetle.html

- 2 www.barkbeetles.org/spruce/SBFIDL127.htm

- 3 www.barkbeetles.org/mountain.html

Pictures derived from the above pages.

World Conservation Monitoring Center:

- www.wcmc.org

Ministry of Forests:

- www.for.gov.bc.ca/pgeorge/district