Vernon Commonage

Project Description and Location: This project includes Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM) with a Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) theme and Wildlife Habitat Assessments (WHA) for eleven at risk wildlife species. The study area lies within the north Okanagan Valley of south-central B.C. It covers 6,728 hectares, bounded by the City of Vernon in the north, Okanagan Lake in the west, Kalamalka Lake in the east, and the District of Lake Country in the south.

Project partners: The project was funded by The Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia, the B.C. Ministry of Environment, the Habitat Stewardship Program, the Greater Vernon Services Commission, and the Allan Brooks Nature Centre.

Project objective: The project provides inventory information on rare and fragile ecosystems that can be used for ecologically sustainable land use and development planning. The Okanagan Basin of B.C. has been subjected to extensive agricultural conversion, intense human settlement pressure, noxious weed invasion, uncontrolled motorized recreation, and forest ingrowth and encroachment associated with fire exclusion. All of these threaten the viability of natural ecosystems and wildlife habitat in the area.

Standards and scale used: The project follows the Standard for Mapping Terrestrial Ecosystems in B.C. 1998.  Sensitive ecosystem categories were assigned to the same TEM units as the Central Okanagan and Bella Vista SEIs; new TEM units were evaluated for rarity and ecological sensitivity. The mapping was completed in 2006 at 1:20,000 scale.

Data & Reports

Report authors: K. Iverson, P. Uunila, A. Haney and M. Sarell

Digital files on EcoCat: Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory - Vernon Commonage