Nadina Forest District

Within the Nadina Forest District lie 2 Timber Supply Areas; the Lakes and the Morice. Historically the area had a diverse complex of vegetation types which were often impacted by fire. Typical of most communities in the north the areas of settlement began along the main travel corridors and along the many lakes, creeks and rivers in the area. These settlement corridors were primarily developed by the logging industry which in the past consisted of mainly tie hackers. The railway was instrumental in opening up the country and allowing for even more settlement. Along with this industry came agriculture. Horses were used for logging and with that came the need to feed these animals as well as the usual farm animals that would sustain families in this remote area.

Logging in the area was generally for spruce. At one time the pine was considered almost a nuisance species and was often simply piled and burned. Today pine is the primary species logged in the Nadina. Pine in the area has been devastated by the Mountain Pine Beetle and the majority of pine in the Lakes TSA has been impacted and the impact is growing exponentially within the Morice TSA.

Prior to settlement First Nations communities trapped, hunted and fished in these same areas. Hunting was mainly for caribou and fishing was for salmon, trout, char and some coarse fish as well. Even today there is a First Nation fishery on Babine Lake. At one time there was even a commercial fishery on Francois Lake. In the early 1900s moose were establishing in the area and expanded their range all through the Nadina District. The caribou herd appears to be mainly in the area south of Ootsa Lake now. There are also isolated numbers of Mountain goat within the Nadina.

The area had many fires travel through at various times which kept many of the smaller grasslands in a productive state. Since 1949 it is estimated that approximately over 50% of the known grasslands have been encroached upon by aspen. Most of the grassland communities within the Nadina are associated with south facing slopes. As would be expected these are also the areas which were settled and where the ranching industry developed.

As logging operations intensified and became more advanced through technology, mills were built. This brought about large scale logging on the landscape that created numerous openings. These openings in some cases produced natural forage and others were seeded with forage for livestock. This process along with agricultural land development expanded the ranching industry through the 70s and 80s. Agricultural leases issued through the Ministry of Lands at the time were vital to the area, stabilizing and expanding the existing agriculture sector in the community. Most if not all of the ranchers in the area were also loggers in some form or another. Many had logging operations or they may have had individual pieces of equipment that they operated. This diversity and availability of having an outside income was also crucial for the existing ranches to develop more land and increase their herds.

Fires were a major part of the ecosystem in the north and with settlement these fires began to be kept under control. From this control evolved the problem of deciduous tree and shrub encroachment onto grasslands in the area. This is an area of concern due to the requirements to restore and maintain these areas in a grassland type community.

In 1979 the Range Act was brought into effect in BC. With this came the requirement to have all livestock grazing on crown range authorized to do so under legal tenure.
Historically, cattle in the area were on range early in the spring and brought off late in the fall. This was basically due to many holdings not being fenced and therefore unable to contain livestock on private holdings. There were also a number of operations that were fenced and managed accordingly. Typical of any society, the ranching community was not entirely receptive to having someone tell them when cattle could use an allotment.

Over time a lot of private fence as well as crown fences were developed on various allotments. Water developments, stock trails, burns, forage seeding, etc. are all tools used by range managers and ranchers within the Nadina District to manage, control and allot the range resource within the District.

Through their own organizations as well as many seminars and workshops the livestock industry has come to realize that we mange for the forage resource. It is also understood that the cattle that use the forage are the only way to convert the forage to a product (pounds of beef) that can be sold. Unless we maintain healthy forage we are unable to maintain an industry on crown range. The ranching community here is made up of a diverse group of people who are generally hard working and family-oriented and have a passion for the land.

With the ever developing transportation systems in the province and the advances in the field of growing crops also comes the added burden of dealing with invasive plants. In simple terms these are plants that are not naturally found in this ecosystem and in most cases are plants that are from other parts of the world (Europe, Asia etc.). This has brought about the development of the Northwest Invasive Plant Council (NWIPC) which is made up of user groups, scientists, interest groups, local, regional and provincial governments. Through this group Invasive Plants (IPs) are dealt with across the Northwest (NW) through a pooling of funding and resources, which in turn allows for very efficient contract administration and delivery of control programs. There are a number of species of IPs in the NW with knapweed, hawkweeds, leafy spurge just a few.

There is also an extensive network of operational monitoring plots and transects across the Nadina District. These were developed using the habitat monitoring procedures developed in the 1980s. The NW is the only area in the province using this methodology and has found that it is both cost effective and operationally feasible. There are also Range Reference Areas in the NW and these are long term exclosures that are more suited for research type data collection.

In the spring of 2003, the Morice Forest District office was closed and the district was amalgamated with the Lakes Forest District into what is now called the Nadina Forest District. This amalgamation had a major impact on the tenure holders in the range program as they no longer had direct access to range staff in the community of Houston. In the fall of 2006, we were able to place a full-time Agrologist in the Houston field unit which again gave the community of Houston access to an Agrologist for dealing with range issues in the Morice TSA. Also in the fall of 2006 a new Agrologist was hired in the Nadina office to administer the Lakes TSA range tenures. The Nadina District range program is supervised by a Senior Agrologist who also supervises the range program for the Skeena Stikine Forest District which covers the remaining NW portion of the province of BC.

During 2006 and 2007 the main goal of the range program is to look at new initiatives to deal with the impacts of the MPB in the Nadina as well as insure all tenure holders have valid updated Range Use Plans (RUPs). These plans are now being written and submitted by the tenure holder in accordance with the Forest and Range Practices Act of BC (FRPA) that was passed in legislation in 2004.
All tenure holders must have FRPA approved RUPs by January 31, 2007.