2008 Assessment of Forestry Road Crossings in the Kispiox River Watershed Using the Water Quality Effectiveness Evaluation

The purpose of the 2008 Kispiox River Watershed, Forestry Road Crossing Assessment Project was to protect fish habitat by identifying stream crossings within the Cullon, Ironside, and Lower Kispiox Watersheds that are producing road related sediment that could transfer to an adjacent watercourse. We assessed 146 mapped road crossings for sedimentation risk in the Ironside, Cullon and Lower Kispiox sub-basins of the Kispiox River Watershed in northwest British Columbia. The Water Quality Effectiveness Evaluation was used at each crossing, as developed by Carson et al. (2008), which ranks each crossing and gives it a Total Crossing Score. Using 1:50,000 scale maps, we estimated there to be 350 crossings in the study area; therefore approximately 42% of the total were surveyed in 2008. Of the 146 mapped crossings in these sub-basins that we attempted to locate, the breakdown of sediment risk rankings was Very High (5.5% - n=8), High (13.7% - n=20), Moderate (29.5% - n =43), Low (16.4% - n=24), Very Low (34.2% - n=50) and 1 mapped crossing was not found. Preliminary prescriptions were developed for 56 crossings with an estimated budget of $660,000. Recommendations were made on another 5 crossings to mitigate beaver related problems, and maintenance issues were noted at 3 others. It is also recommended the remaining crossings are surveyed as soon as possible, at an estimated cost of $40,000.