Pearson Pond

The Bridge River Watershed, located in the South Chilcotin Mountains, is a vast mountain region stretching beyond the grasslands of Gun Creek west to the Bridge Glacier and north to the Chilcotin Plateau. This rainshadow area that spills out of ancient glaciers from the Lillooet Icefield and gradually transforms into grassland meadows and plateau zones is home to an abundance of wild life.

Moose inhabit their summer ranges at high elevation, in winter however they leave the areas of deep snow and migrate to their winter habitat in valley bottoms. Due to the Bridge River Hydroelectric project of the 1950's over 4,437 hectares of valley bottom and 232 hectares of adjacent hillsides were flooded. This major loss of winter habitat for ungulates affected wildlife migration patterns and population densities. As a result the Pearson Pond area became a preferred wintering habitat for moose. Winter habitat availability and quality is considered to be one of the limiting factors to moose population (Lemke 2000) and therefore protection and enhancement of the remaining preferred moose wintering range is imperative.

In recent years there has been decreased moose usage of the area due to a lack of available browse. The goal is to enhance and preserve the moose winter habitat by providing and maintaining adequate browse of palatable species such as willow, birch, aspen and red osier dogwood. The strategy involves selective forest thinning and monitoring of the area in question while subsequently educating and raising public awareness of the environmental and economic importance of a healthy and biologically diverse ecosystem.

Issues:

• Funneling of moose to Pearson Pond due to Carpenter Lake flooding has resulted in over-foraging on shrubs at Pearson Pond
• Reduction in browse species due to crown closure of maturing deciduous tree species

Goals:

• Selective forest thinning and planting of key moose browse species
• Develop a current moose population estimate
• Assess effectiveness of moose habitat enhancement through pre-post treatment inventory of flora and fauna
• Educate interested groups, general public and local communities about responsible natural resource use to increase engagement and participation in resource stewardship activities
• Have consistent management plans on a regional and provincial scale for more effective conservation
• Reduce road density in high value winter habitat areas