Restoration practitioners can use this section to help choose a restoration project, or to understand how their restoration project fits into provincial-level restoration needs.

Terrestrial and aquatic restoration have been handled as separate programs by government, and the prioritization schemes are quite different.

Aquatic Restoration Priorities in British Columbia

A planning process was undertaken for the former Watershed Restoration Program that designated high priority watersheds and sub-watersheds, based on the importance and risk to the fish stocks that used those rivers. All watersheds in the Province are ranked using this system, and these lists are available on a region-by-region basis through your regional Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management office.

Watershed-based Fish Sustainability Planning is underway as of 2002. You can find more information about this comprehensive, high-level aquatic sustainability program by visiting the following webpage:
http://www-heb.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/publications/pdf/wfsp/wfsp_e.htm
or by contacting the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or the Ministry of Environment. The information generated through this initiative will be of interest to restorationists working in specific watersheds under discussion, and will help coordinate land management and restoration activities for aquatic values, whether on private or public land.

No priorities have been set for restoration work on wetlands and lakes around the province. In general, almost all wetland habitats are at risk in inhabited areas, and are often high priorities for restoration. Aquatic features such as kettle lakes in the dry interior are useful sites to consider for restoration; these areas are usually biodiversity 'hot-spots' and often suffer impacts from agricultural or human use.

Tanis Douglas
Wetlands, kettle lakes, and sloughs like the one pictured above are often high priority for restoration treatments.

Terrestrial Restoration Priorities in British Columbia

The Terrestrial Ecosystem Restoration Program (1999-2002) has designated restoration priorities based on the Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification subzones of the Province (see BEC information in Resources section). Under the BEC system the province is divided into 14 BEC zones, and 94 subzones, and it is these subzones that are rated for their restoration need based on their extent of departure from the natural range of variability. This analysis was done for each of the six provincial forest regions, and the resultant Strategic Ecological Restoration Assessment reports are available online from the Ecosystems Branch of the Ministry of Environment (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/fia/habitat_restoration.html). These SERA reports provide a basis for understanding the most pressing restoration needs in BC.