The purpose of this analysis was to look at the proposed project area for the Garibaldi at Squamish ski resort a year-round destination on Brohm Ridge, and determine whether it was a good fit based on the impact that this project will have on the environment. In this analysis, I looked at the habitats of ungulate, fish and endangered species as well as the parks and protected areas already in place and the old growth forests. These areas should be preserved to allow the respective species to continue thriving in their environment. Furthermore, I looked at the road networks already in place which would help to reduce the time and cost of future construction.
The following steps were taken in the assessment:
- Gather data from various sources (such as DataBC).
- Organize the gathered data.
- Focused into looking at solely the proposed project area and removed all the data that was associated with other areas. This lessened the amount of data that I had to deal with and reduced the clutter of information.
- Created a 555m snowline, and separated the areas that are potentially above or below this with a line. Those areas below this line potentially do not have enough snow for ski runs.
- Separated areas that are potentially old growth forests. These protected areas are not allowed to be cut down during construction.
- Separated the ungulate winter habitat. This shows the range of Mule Deer and Mountain Goats in the winter. If a resort were to be built, these animals’ natural habitats would be disturbed since the ski resort would most likely be busiest at the same time.
- Separated the red-listed ecosystems. These areas house endangered species and should remain undisturbed to allow the species time to repopulate. It was discovered that six species are endangered in the proposed project area: Falsebox, Salal, Cladina, Kinnikinnick, Flat Moss and Cat’s-tail Moss.
- Looked at the waterways in the proposed areas and created a buffer zone around them. Buffering an area creates a border of a certain distance in all directions around a specific area. Some of the streams may be fish-bearing and to preserve this natural habitat, the streams and the area around the streams should remain untouched. Streams that are above 555 meters in elevation are less likely to bear fish, so they only require 50 meters of buffer around the waterway. Streams that are below 555 meters may house more fish and are given a buffer of 100 meters to preserve their habitat.
- Combining all the areas that should be protected (old growth forests, fish habitat riparian management zones, ungulate habitats, and red-listed species areas). This helps in calculating areas that should be protected. It also prevents overlaps such as calculating an area twice.
- Creating a map using a 3D elevation model as the base then highlighting the previously gathered protected areas. Included are roadways, elevation contour lines and the 555 meter snowline.
- Add a legend, scale and compass to help user interpretation.
In the results, I discovered that 29.93% of the proposed project area is below 555 meters. Meaning that, these areas will most likely not have enough snow for the ski runs. 6.78% of the proposed area is old growth forests, 7.89% is ungulate habitat, 24.84% are habitats to endangered species, and 28.07% will fall on fish bearing streams. This equates to 54.68% of the project disrupting protected areas. It is important to note, however, that further research is needed to look at the impact in regards to social, economic, heritage, and health effects.
The two greatest environmental concerns to project development would have to be red-listed species and fish bearing streams as those take up the most of the project area. Seeing as most of these red-listed areas and fish bearing streams fall below the 555 meter line, impacts to these areas can be minimized by restricting construction to higher elevations. This would also be beneficial for the resort owners since there is a chance of insufficient snow below the 555 meter line. In this way, impact to these protected areas can remain minimal, while profit for the resort can be maximized.
Personally, I do not think that this project should be allowed to continue. While the memo notes that limits to construction below the 555 meter snowline can minimize impacts to red listed species and fish bearing streams, these areas will be disturbed regardless. The increased human traffic in these areas will significantly impact and alter the original ecological balance of these areas. Species that are endangered, if unable to adapt to these conditions will become extinct and loss of species in an ecosystem leads to wider scale impacts to the ecological balance in the long run.
Recap of learning: I gained skills in acquiring and parsing data to filter out the information that I needed based on my analytical objectives. I was able to clip, buffer, and layer different sets of data together to determine whether or not the location for the ski resort has major environmental impacts.