Whereas Section 21 of the Private Managed Forest Land Act is an unacceptable restriction on the authority of local governments to regulate activities on private managed forest land PMFL; And whereas local governments and communities would benefit significantly from PMFL owners sharing their management commitment, operations maps, harvesting plans and supporting assessments and long-term disposition or development intentions for their land; And whereas PMFL regulations are not equivalent to forestry regulations that apply to Crown forest land: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM call on the Province to amend the Private Managed Forest Land Act and Regulations to provide local government more authority to regulate activities on PMFL; require the owners of PMFL to undertake annual consultation and sharing of management commitments, operations maps, harvesting plans and supporting assessments and long-term disposition or development intentions for land within municipal boundaries; and amend the Private Managed Forest Land Act and Regulations to standards that are equivalent to Crown forest land regulations.
Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development The Private Managed Forest Land Act and regulations are intended to encourage the management of private lands as forests and balances the property rights of private land holders with obligations for environmental protection. The Act and regulations also ensure consistency in how private managed forest lands are governed regardless of where in the province they are located. Imposing requirements for information sharing within municipal boundaries is an unjustified intrusion into private decisions of landowners. There are opportunities available for direct communication between concerned local governments,individual land owners, Private Managed Land Association, and the regulator of the Private Managed Forest Land Act, the Managed Forest Council.