JEM Readers respond

Abstract

Congratulations on the success of your new BC Journalof Ecosystems and Management. We look forward tofuture issues on this important topic. However, webelieve there needs to be some clarification on therecently posted JEM article, “Using forest structuraldiversity to inventory habitat diversity of forest-dwellingwildlife in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia”by Kris McCleary and Garth Mowat [see pages 120–132]. The authors state that “forest ecosystem inventoriescurrently used in the province only document forestcomposition (Vegetation Resources Inventory) oridentify plant communities (Terrestrial EcosystemMapping) and are therefore inappropriate or inadequateas tools for land management planning.” Yet the methodssubsequently described for using forest structure asa means of inventorying forest-dwelling wildlife habitatappear to draw heavily on these existing provincialinventory standards for forest and ecosystem inventory.These inventories should have been correctly acknowledgedand referenced in McCleary and Mowat’s article.