Management Statement for Morice River Ecological Reserve, 2003

The following is from the BC Parks website:
The provincial government established Morice River Ecological Reserve (E.R. #81) on December 15 th,1977 byOrderin-Council3775/77under the
Ecological Reserve Act
.
The Protected Areas of BC provided legislated status to the ecological reserve boundaries on June 12th, 2000. Morice River Ecological Reserve covers 357.5 hectares and is the only protected area in the Morice Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) planning area that has as its purpose ecological
protection. The ecological reserve is located on the west side of the Morice River 24 kilometres southwest of Houston, across the river from the Morice River Road. This area lies within the asserted traditional territory of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council.
The purpose of the Morice River Ecological Reserve is to preserve for research purposes, a forest ecosystem representative of the western edge of the Sub-boreal Spruce Zone. The ecological reserve is also near the western edge of the Nechako Plateau. In May 1983 a forest fire almost completely burned the ecological reserve. Since the fire, forest regeneration has resulted in a dense stand of young lodgepole pine among the standing and fallen burned trees. Prior to the fire the flatter uplands of the reserve contained dense stands of lodgepole pine or spruce, while the southeast facing slopes above the river had more open stands containing aspen. The riverbanks supported some spruce and cottonwood.
Local naturalists and ecologists use the ecological reserve. Morice River Ecological Reserve provides a setting to monitor forest succession after disturbance, as is being done by the Ministry of Forests Research Branch. As well as the research and conservation roles, the
ecological reserve serves an educational role for those interested in forest succession after fire.

See the full PDF here:morice_mds