The 亚洲天堂 Lake Community Forest (BLCF) has applied for funding to collect moose data which would later be used to protect crucial moose habitat and enhance the local moose population.

Last year the provincial government announced a new strategy to modernize aspects of wildlife management across the province, initially focusing on growing moose populations. Al Gorley was contracted to engage with key wildlife stakeholders and First Nations in developing a moose enhancement strategy. Protecting existing moose habitat was one of his recommendations.

鈥淥n landscapes that have experienced salvage logging, a concern now is that remaining areas of green timber will be liquidated to keep mills running,鈥� states the report. 鈥淲hile the value of the remaining green timber is enhanced due to scarcity, so is its value as habitat - for the same reason.鈥�

鈥淭herefore hard choices will have to be made, and trade-offs will occur,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭hat is why it is important to identify the landscapes on which moose population management will take a high priority, and then ensure it is factored into resource management decisions.鈥�

Following Gorley鈥檚 recommendation, the BLCF has applied for a Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. funding to collect data this winter.

鈥淚f we get the funding for it, hopefully we鈥檒l know that in October, we鈥檒l have contractors carry out the work,鈥� explained BLCF general manager Frank Varga.

Varga said the intent would be to identify which areas within the K1A license are considered 鈥渉igh-value鈥� moose habitat.

鈥淒epending on what type of vegetation and terrain exist, the biologist has criteria to identify a potentially high-value moose habitat,鈥� he explained. 鈥淥n the map level, they put a big circle and say, 鈥楾his could be potential high-value habitat,鈥� and then they will go verify to see if the habitat has the features that we think it does.鈥�

鈥淭hen they would say, 鈥榊es, this is high-value moose habitat and you need to do everything you can to ensure that you鈥檙e managing for the moose over anything else.鈥�

Once the assessment has been made, the province would support the BLCF in preserving the areas considered high value.

鈥淭he idea is to have a more structured management strategy for those areas,鈥� explained Varga.

Surveys conducted by regional wildlife biologists within the last decade suggest that moose population declines of 50 to 70 per cent had occurred in some areas of interior B.C. The moose population in the Bulkley Valley Lakes District region declined by 20 per cent from 2004 to 2011.

In his report, Gorley says the reason for lower numbers of moose is 鈥渃omplicated and likely varies between regions.鈥�

鈥淭here is uncertainty about the underlying causes, which are likely a combination of altered habitat, hunters and predators, and perhaps even climate change,鈥� states the report.

In response to the moose decline, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations initiated a five-year moose research project in 2013. The key objective of this research project is to test the landscape change hypothesis that assumes moose survival will increase when a) forestry cutblocks regenerate to the point where vegetation obstructs the view of predators and hunters; b) resource roads created for logging are rendered impassable due to deactivation or forest ingrowth; and c) moose become more uniformly dispersed on the landscape.