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Geospatial Indicators and Metrics for Threats to Fish Habitat in the Fraser River Basin with Thompson-Nicola as a Case Study

Regional Peer Review – Pacific Region

February 27-29, 2024

Virtual Meeting

Chairperson: Ben Davis

Context

On August 28, 2019, a new Fisheries Act came into force with restored protections and modernizations to help safeguard fish and fish habitat. To implement the modernized Fisheries Act, modern tools and approaches to track and assess the health or state of fish and fish habitat are needed to support responsive and integrated regulatory, planning, partnership and monitoring activities by the Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program (FFHPP) and to demonstrate improved outcomes for sustainability of fish and fish habitat.

In July 2022, initial science advice was provided on geospatial mapping tools, indicators, and metrics for fish habitat in the Pacific Region (DFO 2022). Public facing geospatial tools that provided indicators of human activities and threats to fish habitat and watersheds in the Pacific Region were reviewed to determine whether, and how, they estimated elements of key habitat threats of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)-managed freshwater and anadromous species as identified by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Habitat threats included those listed in the Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Policy Statement (DFO 2019), the Interim Risk Management Guide for the Protection of Fish and Fish HabitatFootnote 1, and relevant COSEWIC documents. The threats listed in the policy (DFO 2019) and reviewed in DFO (2022) were: habitat degradation; habitat modification; aquatic invasive species; pollution; and climate change. Threats addressed from the associated guide were: sedimentation; deleterious substances; and change or loss of riparian zone, aquatic habitat and vegetation, fish passage, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients. The resulting report recommendations included further work to develop a geospatial approach to report on the state of fish habitat and incorporate a temporal component to reflect changes over time (DFO 2022). This Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) process is intended to address the further work identified.

FFHPP has requested that Science Branch develop a geospatial approach to report on the state of fish habitat and evaluate which elements can be assessed temporally. Outcomes of this assessment will be used to report on the status of threats to the state of fish habitat, including but not limited to those listed in the Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Policy Statement (DFO 2019). FFHPP also requested a spatial analysis of intersecting climate change impacts to stream flow and temperature and human activity-based threats on salmon ecosystems in the Thompson-Nicola Ecological Drainage Unit (EDU).

The Thompson-Shuswap and Nicola River watersheds have been identified as pilot areas to deliver Integrated Planning for Salmon Ecosystems (IPSE) under the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI), in partnership with Indigenous organizations and the Province of British Columbia. These collaborative planning processes intend to identify and prioritize actions that benefit salmon ecosystems within these watersheds, while considering impacts from climate change and human uses. The results of the Thompson-Nicola spatial analysis undertaken as part of this CSAS regional peer review will be used to inform these processes.

As these two requests use related methods, they have been combined for a consistent and thorough review. Threats assessed in this process were selected to align with the key threats included in DFO (2022) and based on feasibility and foundational methods determined in Boyd et al. (2022). The evaluated anthropogenic-based threats are: aquatic invasive species; flow alteration (i.e., habitat modification); in stream habitat destruction (i.e., habitat degradation); latitudinal and longitudinal fragmentation (i.e., fish passage); riparian disturbance; and human-mediated changes in nutrients; pollution; and sedimentation. These threats will be provided as individual and additive cumulative threat scores applied to the Fraser River Basin (FRB). Climate change related threats will be addressed separately and include projected changes in stream flow, summer stream temperatures, and flood risk. Threats listed in the policy and guide that are currently outside the scope of geospatial analysis at broad spatial scales based on existing data are: overexploitation of fish and provincially managed species; and change in aquatic habitat and vegetation, dissolved oxygen, food supply, noise, light, and electromagnetic field.

The assessment and advice arising from this CSAS Regional Peer Review process will be used to inform FFHPP Pacific Region activities related to the implementation of the modernized Fisheries Act, including being able to articulate how FFHPP Pacific is working to develop habitat status or health indicators. The Thompson-Nicola spatial analysis will be used to inform IPSE collaborative planning processes in the Thompson-Nicola watersheds.

Objectives

The following working paper will be reviewed and provide the basis for discussion and advice on the specific objectives outlined below.

Iacarella et al. Geospatial Indicators and Metrics for Threats to Fish Habitat in the Fraser River Basin with Thompson-Nicola as a Case Study. 2024. CSAP Request IDs 845 & 897.

The specific objectives of this review are to:

  1. Part I: Geospatial Mapping Indicators and Metrics for Fish Habitat in the Fraser River Basin
    1. Develop methods to estimate nine anthropogenic-based threats (aquatic invasive species; flow alteration (i.e., habitat modification); in stream habitat destruction (i.e., habitat degradation); latitudinal and longitudinal fragmentation (i.e., fish passage); riparian disturbance; and human-mediated changes in nutrients; pollution; and sedimentation) and apply individual and cumulative threat estimates to stream reaches across the FRB as a template for extending threat assessments across the Region.
    2. Develop and compile the four estimates of climate change related threats (low and high stream flow; summer stream temperatures; and flood risk) and apply to stream reaches across the FRB.
    3. Determine overlap of anthropogenic-based threats and climate change threats with critical habitat of Species at Risk Act (SARA)-listed aquatic species, salmon designatable units assessed by COSEWIC as Threatened and Endangered, and other salmon conservation units within the basin. Identify the relative contribution of each threat to each habitat.
    4. Evaluate, and demonstrate where possible, the ability to re-assess threats temporally based on the current data available.
    5. Examine and identify uncertainties and limitations in the data and methods, including those threats not covered herein. Identify ability and limitations to apply methodology to the rest of the Pacific Region.
  2. Part II: Thompson-Nicola Case Study
    1. For the Thompson-Nicola EDU, apply the anthropogenic and climate change threats developed in objectives 1-2 to identify associated threat levels to salmon populations (i.e., conservation units) and salmon ecosystems (i.e., stream reaches). Highlight those that are most at-risk based on the estimated threats.
    2. Provide initial examples of applications of the threat scores that can be used to help inform restoration prioritization activities in the EDU. Combine with scores of environmentally favourable spawning habitat (Iacarella and Weller 2023) and delineated conservation units, as relevant, to indicate where high levels of estimated threats correspond with potentially important habitat for salmon. Focus on threats and human activities that may be mitigated through restoration and management actions:
      1. riparian disturbance where nutrient, pollution, or sedimentation inputs from human activities and landscape disturbance are estimated to be high;
      2. water withdrawal license allowances where flow is low under projected current and future conditions; and
      3. barriers to upstream passage that block potentially important habitat for salmon spawning.

Expected Publications

Expected Participation

References

Notice

Participation to CSAS peer review meetings is by invitation only.

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