Existing Visual Quality Objectives
for the Kootenay Lake Forest District
Approximately one-third of the Timber Harvesting Land Base in Kootenay Lake Forest District is visible from major highways and communities. These areas are formally noted as Scenic Areas. Timber harvesting is limited in terms of the amount and severity of visible logging which can occur, based upon the visual quality classes.
There are three main visual quality objectives, each with a different level
of acceptable visual impact. These were
established by District Manager order on July 12, 1999 and have been
grandfathered under the
“Retention” - harvesting should not be visually apparent. In other words, a person looking at the landscape would probably not recognize any alteration as logging unless he or she was specifically looking for it. The scenic quality is retained, in other words.
“Partial Retention” – harvest openings may be readily visible, but are designed to minimize visual impact by using irregular shapes and retention of forest cover patches. Visual impact may be significant immediately after logging, but if well designed, this impact is greatly reduced within five years or so as the regenerating forest is established.
“Modification” - harvesting may be readily visible, and may be a dominant feature in the landscape. However, cutblock shape and design are still applied, so as to minimize visual impact (in other words, avoid regular, square cutblocks). This category is usually in background views.
The amount of visible harvesting which an area can absorb varies depending on viewing distance, viewing angle, existing uniformity/patchiness, slope, and other factors. Within visually sensitive areas, forest companies often conduct Visual Impact Assessments (VIAs), which may include photographic simulations of proposed harvest blocks from specific viewpoints. The emphasis is not on hiding logging, but to design it so that it fits reasonably well into the landscape over time.
In the Kootenay Lake Forest District, forest companies practice a variety of harvest systems. These include clearcuts, clearcuts with reserve patches, small patch cuts, group selection and single tree selection. All systems have requirements that can be utilized to meet the objectives of maintaining scenic quality. As the topography of the district is very vertical, managing for the visual resource is a constant challenge.