What are riparian areas?
Riparian areas are the portions of land adjacent to water bodies – lakes, wetlands, creeks and rivers – that are influenced by, and have an influence on, the aquatic environment. As transition zones between the terrestrial and the aquatic environment, riparian areas are some of the most diverse ecosystems on earth, more information on Riparian Areas

As residential and recreational pressures on Slocan Lake escalate, questions have been raised about what measures need to be taken to balance the social, cultural, ecological, and economic values of any given area. In response to these concerns, Foreshore Inventory and Mapping (FIM) was conducted in 2010 and included FIM field surveys, the development of an Aquatic Habitat Index (AHI) and corresponding Shoreline Management Guidelines (SMG).

Eleven years had passed since the original FIM was conducted and there was an interest in updating the previous field surveys and corresponding analyses to evaluate rates of change (e.g., development), observe whether integrated policies have been working, and identify additional important habitat and species at risk…In 2021, a FIM survey was completed along 88,566 m of the Slocan Lake shoreline” – Slocan Lake Foreshore Integrated Management Planning 2021