Ministry of Environment

Getting to know the SEI maps...

Now that the SEI maps have been published, one of our main goals is to ensure that people in the SEI study area are aware of the maps and know how to use them. The first round of orientation sessions held in Victona, Cowichan Bay, Nanaimo and Courtenay reached more than 125 people, including local government planners and representatives from First Nations and nongovernment organizations.

We hope to provide more of these sessions.

If you would like a speaker for a coming event, or more information on sessions in your area, please contact Judith Cullington at (250) 391-8772.

Reminder!

Please destroy draft versions of the SEI data. The information has changed somewhat from earlier drafts, and continued use could cause confusion.

Attention digital SEI users
'Read-only' TRIM files available soon - we hope!

The licensing agreement that we have with Geographic Data BC does not allow us to redistnbute TRIM information to unlicenced users. We are in the process of translating our modified SEI TRIM layer into a 'read-only'(.tif) image for use by those of you who do not own TRIM files. It should be noted that although the quality of the 'tif' maps will not match a TRIM map, it will allow you to 'see' an SEI site in relation to features such as roads, streams, contours and coastline. Please bear with us - we are still working this solution.

For further information please contact Peggy Ward, Canadian Wildlife Service (see contacts page 4.)

IMPORTANT: DON'T FORGET TO CHECK FOR SECONDARY ECOSYSTEMS. The colour of the SEI site on the map refers to the dominant or primary ecosystem. If it is also marked with diagonal lines, this means that more than one ecosystem type is present, and the "Ecosystems Classification" table at the right hand side of the mapsheet will tell you what the secondary ecosystem is.

A common example of two ecosystems found in combination would be a woodland (WD)site interspersed with terrestrial herbaceous rocky outcrops (HT:ro) . Additional field checking would be needed to determine the extent of the secondary ecosystem.