SFM Plan Enters Next Phase

Feb 22, 2002

With dozens of meetings and hours of discussions on natural resource management behind them, the Scenario Planning Teams (SPTs) of the Morice & Lakes IFPA have completed an Interim Consensus Master Document. After approval from their respective Public Advisory Groups (PAGs) they recently forwarded the results of their efforts to mapping specialists at the McGregor Group, the consulting firm implementing the SFM approach being used by the Morice & Lakes IFPA. (This approach was originally developed by the Prince George-based McGregor Model Forest Association.)

McGregor Group specialists will be producing the digital maps necessary to support the sophisticated computer modeling process that is at the core of the IFPA's Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Plan.

According to Dwight Scott Wolfe, who has been facilitating the scenario planning process, the task has been immense, but the results are well worth it. "Thanks to the time commitments and innovative thinking of the SPTs in both Burns Lake and Houston, we have collected vital information that will form the basis of their SFM Plan," said Wolfe, sustainable forest management coordinator with the McGregor Group.

Scenario Planning Team members have been active in meetings since April 2000, preparing lists of natural resource values and issues. The Master Document records the values, activities and a range of objectives for the forest land-base in the Lakes and Morice Timber Supply Areas. The teams are comprised of local community members and representatives from industry and government agencies with interests in a variety of land-use values, like recreation, tourism, timber and wildlife. (See SPT member lists on page 4.)

"Scenario Planning Team members, along with the Public Advisory Groups, have been working through this process for over two years," said Glenda Ferris, an environmental activist on the Morice Scenario Planning Team. "It has been a cooperative effort through the first phase of this IFPA and it's gratifying to move to the next stage in the process." This next stage emphasizes analysis of SPT Master Documents and accompanying maps. Leading the analysis is Smithers-based Steve Voros, senior analyst with the McGregor Group. According to Voros, incorporating local knowledge into the planning process is key. "The Scenario Planning Teams from both TSAs are supplying vital local information, particularly in the areas of recreation and wildlife habitat," he said.

Voros is currently working with McGregor's mapping team to update the forest cover information for both TSAs. This information will be used to generate both the timber growth and yield projections and block maps. (The growth and yield projections are used to predict the growth of trees into the future while the block map is used by the forest estate model to schedule management activities.)

The first scenario to be modeled in each TSA will be the "base case scenario" - a planning scenario which follows the current Ministry of Forest's Timber Supply Review harvest flow policies and management assumptions. The base case scenarios will serve as the benchmark against which other forest management scenarios will be compared.

"We look forward to bringing others into this comprehensive planning process, including First Nations and the general public," said Ferris, adding that the IFPA will be scheduling open houses during 2002 to present planning team information and gather even more input for the SFM Plan. "Our focus over the next six months will be information exchange, open communication and data distribution."