Whereas many local governments and communities rely on meaningful outdoor recreation for economic stability and development and, at the same time, those local governments and communities care about maintaining existing Recreation Sites and Trails Management andor Partnership Agreements with the Province of British Columbia for respectful stewardship of the lands; And whereas the BC government has established broad Forest Range Practices Act FRPA objectives under the Forest Planning and Practices Regulation FPPR for ten of the eleven FRPA values - they have not established an objective for recreation - which makes recreation the only value without a FRPA objective and leaves recreation out of planning processes; And whereas only the BC government can set objectives within the Forest Range Practices Act: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the BC government to allocate the necessary resources to create the following objective under the Forest Planning and Practices Regulation Part 2 Division 1: The objective set by government for recreation is, without unduly reducing the supply of timber from British Columbias forests, to avoid or mitigate any adverse impacts to any recreation site, trail or facility that exists on Crown land.
Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development is committed to effective management of forest recreation resources in British Columbia. While the Forest Practices and Planning Regulation does not include a broad objective for recreation resources, there is a mechanism in, Section 563 of the Forest and Range Practices Act to establish objectives for individual sites, trails and interpretive forests. Following the Forest Practices Board Report on Management of Forest Recreation, Recreation Sites and Trails branch is evaluating opportunities to apply objectives to sites and trails. The proposed objective would likely have a similar outcome to the current practice requirement found in the Section 70 of the Forest Practices and Planning Regulation, which is in place for Resource Features designated in accordance with the Government Action Regulation. Many recreation sites and trails are designated as resource features; and where appropriate, others can be considered for that designation. Finally, Bill 23-2021, passed in fall 2021, requires consideration of values placed on forest ecosystems by local communities in forest landscape planning which are sure to include recreation.