Watershed Status Evaluation: An Assessment of 71 Watersheds Meeting BC's Fisheries Sensitive Watershed Criteria

This pilot project used the WSE Tier I GIS-based methods described in Porter et al. (2013) to assess the watershed indicator “risk” status of 71 watersheds across most of British Columbia’s natural resource regions. Measured values for as many as nine habitat indicators within surveyed watersheds were compared to indicator benchmarks defined in Porter et al. (2013) to assess risk “status” for each FSW (i.e., GIS-derived watershed values relative to indicator benchmarks). The defined indicator benchmarks represent one of three risk levels associated with fish habitat impact: (1) low, (2) moderate, and (3) high.