West Island Timberlands

Project Description and Location: This project presents a predictive Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) for Weyerhauser’s West Island Timberlands on TFL 44. A combination of SEI categories and at risk (red and blue listed) ecological communities tracked by the B.C. Conservation Data Centre were mapped using existing GIS layers such as Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM) and forest cover. The study area covers all of TFL 44 (over 277,000 ha) on Vancouver Island. 

Project partners: The project was funded by Weyerhauser as part of their CSA Certification.

Project objectives: This is a pilot GIS project to determine whether or not the Sustainable Forestry Management plan objectives for conserving rare or sensitive ecosystems could be met with existing data such as, Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM), forest cover and other relevant data.

Standards and scale used: This project predates the Standard for Mapping Ecosystems at Risk in British Columbia, 2006. Field inspections were completed on four 1:20 000 scale map sheets – survey intensity level four. Results were used to revise the GIS model and to update specific map units. The remaining map sheets were then completed. Mapping is at 1:20,000 scale. 

Data & Reports

Report authors: Bill Beese, Aaron Fujikawa and Chris Clement

Digital files on EcoCat: Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory - West Island Timberlands