Kootenay/Boundary Land Use Plan Implementation Strategy Kootenay Inter-Agency Management Committee June 1997 CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Regional Planning Process 1.2 Implementation Strategy Objectives 1.3 Plan and Implementation Strategy Scope 1.4 Principles Applied in KBLUP Implementation Strategy Development 1.5 Land Use Designation Categories Protected Areas Special Resource Management Zone Integrated Resource Management Zone Enhanced Resource Development Zone Chapter 2 General Resource Management Direction Economic Values Social Values Environmental Values Chapter 3 Geographically Specific Resource Management Direction 3.1 Explanation of Resource Management Guidelines and Resource Value Maps 3.2 Management for General Biodiversity 3.3 Connectivity Guidelines 3.4 Grizzly Bear Guidelines 3.5 Ungulate Winter Range Guidelines 3.6 Mountain Caribou Guidelines 3.7 Community and Domestic Watershed Management 3.8 Front Country Visuals Guidelines 3.9 Backcountry Recreation Guidelines 3.10 Rangeland (Fire Maintained Ecosystems) Guidelines 3.11 Timber Enhanced Resource Development Zone Guidelines 3.12 Access Management Guidelines 3.13 Human Settlement Management 3.14 Subsurface Resources Guideline Chapter 4 Protected Areas 4.1 Introduction 4.2 General Management Objectives and Strategies for New Protected Areas Draft October, 1996 Chapter 5 Socio-Economic Development Measures 5.1 Economic Transition Background 5.2 The Kootenay/Boundary Economic Transition Plan A. Community Monitoring B. Sectoral Initiatives C. Major Project Development Chapter 6 Plan Management and Administration 6.1 Plan and Implementation Strategy Adoption 6.2 Plan Implementation 6.3 Subsequent Land Use Planning 6.4 Public Involvement Opportunities in Subsequent Land Use Planning 6.5 Plan Monitoring and Reporting 6.6 Annual Public Report 6.7 Plan Interpretation and Dispute Resolution 6.8 Plan Amendment Glossary References Appendices Supplementary Resource Management Objectives and Strategies Within Forest Districts Appendix 1 Arrow Forest District Appendix 2 Boundary Forest District Appendix 3 Cranbrook Forest District Appendix 4 Golden Forest District Appendix 5 Invermere Forest District Appendix 6 Kootenay Lake Forest District Appendix 7 Revelstoke Forest District Draft October, 1996 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 The Regional Planning Process The Kootenay/Boundary region in southeastern British Columbia has an extensive history of land and resources development and conservation and associated planning activity. Building on this past, and in response to escalating land use conflicts, the provincial government directed in 1992 that a strategic land use plan -- for the whole region -- be prepared to identify a comprehensive and integrated vision for regional land and resource use. A regional land use planning process was conducted in the Kootenays between January 1993 and June 1997. This Kootenay/Boundary Land Use Plan (KBLUP) Implementation Strategy consolidates the results of those planning efforts. The regional planning process began in January 1993 when the British Columbia Commission on Resources and Environment (CORE) convened shared decision-making planning processes in the East Kootenay and the West Kootenay-Boundary areas. Planning Tables, comprised of representatives of key interests, worked collaboratively with government representatives until August 1994 to develop recommendations to the Commission on general land allocation, resource management practices and socio-economic transition measures. On the basis of those efforts, CORE submitted East Kootenay and West Kootenay-Boundary land use plan recommendations to the government in October 1994. Following receipt of CORE’s recommendations, the provincial government consulted directly with communities and interested parties in the region, and subsequently released the government’s East Kootenay Land Use Plan and West Kootenay-Boundary Land Use Plan in March 1995. These announcements reflected significant government land allocation decisions -- notably decisions on designation of major new protected areas, special resource management zones, integrated resource management zones and preliminary enhanced resource management zones. The announcements also committed the government to a wide range of regional socio- economic initiatives, including measures to improve and match worker skills with new job opportunities, invest in improved productivity and rehabilitation of forest lands, grazing lands and watersheds, secure more employment in the value-added sector, invest in regional and community infrastructure, and to stimulate investment and employment in the tourism and small business sectors. The diversity of socio-economic strategies that were identified in the government decisions, as well as future strategic directions for socioeconomic development and planning in the region are described more fully in chapter 5. The government’s 1995 land use decisions also committed provincial agencies to further processes to refine the boundaries of the timber enhanced resource development zone, develop geographically-specific resource management objectives across the region, and provide the West Kootenay community of Revelstoke with the opportunity to advise on specific resource management guidance for the Revelstoke District. Accordingly, from August 1995 to KBLUP Page 1 Implementation Strategy June 1997 Chapter 1 Introduction June 1997, work was undertaken to finalize those aspects, enabling development of the KBLUP Implementation Strategy. The work of the Minister’s Advisory Committee in Revelstoke is anticipated to be complete in the fall of 1997. 1.2 Implementation Strategy Objectives The main objectives of the provisions contained in this KBLUP Implementation Strategy are to: • contribute to environmental, social and economic sustainability • reduce the potential for disruptive land use conflicts • help provide a secure and certain basis for long-term public and private planning and investment in resource management and community development • integrate the March 1995 government KBLUP decision with the Forests Practices Code and other government strategic policy guidance dealing with land and resource management, such as the Provincial Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy, emerging policy on managing mountain caribou and access, the Mineral Exploration Code, the Forest Sector Strategy, the Regional Biodiversity Benchmark Project, and the Invermere Enhanced Forest Management Pilot Project, as well as socioeconomic transition, and • provide a strategic context and workable direction for more detailed, operational levels of land and resource planning and day-to-day administrative decision-making. 1.3 Plan and Implementation Strategy Scope The KBLUP applies to all public lands and waters in the Kootenay/Boundary regional planning area, which corresponds with the Ministry of Forests’ Nelson Forest region. The plan does not contain prescriptive direction for privately owned land, although a number of the plan’s objectives assume certain environmental and economic contributions from the region’s relatively extensive proportions of private land. Approved and adopted at the Cabinet level, the KBLUP and Implementation Strategy represents the corporate policy of the British Columbia government. Accordingly, all relevant provincial government agencies, in delivering their mandated responsibilities, are required to observe, comply with and implement the guidance contained in the plan. Responsibilities and mechanisms for KBLUP management and administration (including provisions for plan adoption, implementation, monitoring and reporting, interpretation and dispute resolution and plan amendment) are identified in chapter 6. The appropriate provisions of the KBLUP and Implementation Strategy will be declared as a higher level plan pursuant to the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act (1995), as a legal means of ensuring consistency between the strategic guidance contained in the KBLUP, including the Implementation Strategy, and strategic and operational plans under the Code that are subsequently prepared for forest management. Beyond providing strategic guidance to future lower level planning processes, the KBLUP and Implementation Strategy will also supply important land use and resource management guidance in the development and the day-to-day KBLUP Page 2 Implementation Strategy June 1997 Chapter 1 Introduction administration of natural resources legislation, programs and policies, in evaluating future major project developments that are subject to the Environmental Assessment Act and will provide an overarching context for socio-economic planning initiatives. 1.4 Principles Applied in KBLUP Implementation Strategy Development The KBLUP Implementation Strategy has been prepared on the basis of the following general principles. The KBLUP Implementation Strategy: • is consistent with the government’s KBLUP decision on land use and socio-economic development initiatives, announced in March 1995 • is consistent with government policy direction that the land and resource management objectives and strategies developed for geographically-specific application should not cause additional reductions to short-term timber supply availability, beyond the harvesting reductions already associated with the Chief Forester’s 1994-96 AAC determinations for TSAs and TFLs, implementation of the Forest Practices Code (FPC), and implementation of government’s protected area decisions • is consistent with the Provincial Grizzly Bear