Coming Together
2013 Cooperative Land Management Conference
June 19 – 21, 2013 in Prince George
The initial speaker for the Conference was Kevin Kriese, Ass’t Deputy Minister of the
BC Forest Service, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
Kevin set the tone for the entire conference with his discussions around working together
in a cooperative manner, with a strong focus on the “One Window” approach to
management.
The One Window is a concept that has been in government for many years and is only
now becoming closer for delivery, although Kevin predicts it will still be another 5 years
before fully implemented.
The One Window management style identifies that despite the fact that many government
agencies are directly involved in any crown land activities, the decision making in
government will evolve through the One Window, rather than some of the typical multi
faze approvals that industry and the public have been subjected to in the past.
An example of this One Window approach was demonstrated by their booth called “Front
Office BC.”
When this aspect of government is fully implemented, it should be a much smoother
approach to getting the job done with considerably less red tape and bureaucracy. We
will see over the next few years.
The next speaker was Doug Routledge, Acting President/CEO of the Council of Forest
Products. Doug has a long standing career in the Forest Sector both in the Council and
the Northern Forest Products Association in Prince George.
Doug endorsed Kevin Kriese’s comments on working and coming together, with the
departure about having to try and practice Integrated Resource Management (IRM) on
every square foot of the crown landscape.
Doug has been dedicated to IRM for many years, but is convinced that their needs to be
some practicality in managing this resource use. In practice, it is much more logical to
manage some parts or activities more strongly on some parts of the land, rather than
equally. This flexibility can and should be applied to all uses and users over the entire
landscape, but allows for high use of some resources in some areas than some other
activities.
The bottom line is that all uses and users must be included and considered on the crown
land, including Forest Industry, Mining, Petroleum, First Nations, public uses,
environmental, and recreational.
Those two speakers set the general tone for the conference, and every presenter during
the first day spoke in terms of cooperation, sharing, open dialogue, and open
communication being the common ground for Working and Coming Together in Land
Management.
Day 2 was started by Wayne Thorp, Program Lead, Foothills Research Institute. Wayne
is also a forester from Prince George and Dawson Creek, originally with the BC Forest
Service.
Wayne described the collaborative approach taken with the Foothills Operating Forest
area around Grand Cache. Each participant takes out a membership with an annual
membership fee of $20,000.00. His talk was focused on primarily Government and
Industry, as they are the users that can fund the kind of development required.
I spent some time talking with Wayne after his talk. He assured me that the public and
recreational community was included but this component was left largely to the
Government to ensure they had a voice.
The Research Institute did go through a consultation process with none government and
industry user groups, but it was not part of the formal process.
Wayne pointed out that within the plan area, they were compelled to use seismic roads
and cut lines for resource road location, which was not a good think as these access
routes were not logical for resource use and extraction due to steeper grades, sometimes
poor soils and alignment problems.
Wayne also pointed out that the user groups were compelled to place gates and use
restrictions on every development, to protect their investments and general interest. This
was especially worrisome, when considering the public and recreational communities that
cannot be expected to assume a paid partnership in the area.
Mark Zacharis, ADM, Ministry of Environment spoke on the effects of Land Use on
Caribou. Although there appears to be a spirit of cooperation, it appeared there could be
serious constraints required where Caribou habitat remains, in a continued effort to
manage the areas for the Caribou, given the constant decline in herd numbers from both
loss of habitat and predation.
The afternoon session was focused on the initial Resource Management practices that
have evolved through Model Forest such as seen through the McGregor Model Forest,
Manitoba Model Forest and the Canadian Model Forest Network.
The conference was basically wrapped around the ideas and concepts developed through
the Model Forest Network.
These Model Forest Programs have been in existence since 1992. Some are actual
ground based operations, whereas some are not necessarily Land Based.
They are generally a network of Non-Profit Organizations and require proactive MultiStakeholder participation. This included First Nations and municipal employees and
contractors.
Some focus on such forest activities as “Blueberry Farming”. Others on “Agro-Forestry”
Model Forests espouse:
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Be as Inclusive as possible
Open & Honest Dialogue
The journey is more important than the destination
Adaptive Management has to occur
Demonstrating Relevance & Value.
Allowing & Accepting Input
Relinquishing ownership & responsibility
Making Dialogue easy
Some parting comments:
Forestry isn’t Rocket Science – its much more complex.
Landscapes – Partnerships – Sustainability
Scale – Time – People – Knowledge
I was pleased to participate on behalf of ATVBC. However, I was a little surprised when
I received the conference agenda.
I had expected to see a few working groups or round tables, representing the various
industry, government and public stakeholders, where open dialogue was provided on the
various views and concerns of each stakeholder group.
This conference was more high level than that, and waxed on the necessary components
of “Coming Together” and “Cooperative Land Management”.
The ground level working together dialogue remains at the specific planning tables
representing the land base in specific geographic locations of the Province.
Ken Pendergast,
Prince George ATV Club - Director