Forest, Range & Recreation Resource Analysis Table of Contents
The Ministry of Forests is responsible for managing outdoor recreation (including scenic landscapes and wilderness) on about 85% of the province — most of the Crown land outside of parks. The recreation resource includes:
This chapter has five sections:
Recreation Resource Inventory (Section 5.1) introduces the province’s recreation features, activities and facilities such as sites and trails and the recreation opportunity spectrum by which recreation experiences are classified.
The economic value of outdoor recreation is discussed in Chapter 7, Section 7.3.
Maintaining an inventory of recreation resources is a basic part of recreation management. The Ministry of Forests recreation inventory is based on procedures[61] originally developed by Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks[62]and also used by B.C. Parks. The recreation inventory identifies and maps:
Recreation features include biophysical, visual (scenic) and cultural heritage features such as beaches, waterfalls, springs, water bodies, trails, wildlife, scenic views And historic routes.
The significance of a feature is rated in the inventory as:
The sensitivity of a feature is also rated in terms of three levels of management classes:
The 1984 Forest and Range Resource Analysis estimated that about 18 million hectares (20%) of provincial forests are areas with special recreation values (classes 0 and 1) where special management is required to protect and maintain recreation values.
Existing and potential recreation activities are recorded in the recreation inventory. Outdoor recreation activities include angling, boating, swimming, camping, hunting, caving, hiking, climbing, viewing, horseback riding, snowmobiling and skiing.
The recreation opportunity spectrum (ROS) is an organizing framework for setting recreation management objectives.[64] It was developed by the U.S. Forest Service and is widely used in North America. The ROS system is based on the idea that recreationists can realize desired experiences by participating in recreation activities in chosen settings. These opportunities for activities, settings and experiences range from primitive to urban (Table 5.1). The recreation inventory includes information on existing conditions by ROS class (Section 5.3.2).
ROS classes are based on factors such as remoteness (access), size and evidence of human activity (naturalness). Table 5.1 lists the six ROS classes.
Recreation facilities such as developed camping or day-use sites, viewpoints and trails are also noted on the recreation inventory.
Comprehensive recreation inventory information exists for all provincial forests. The inventory is normally recorded on 1:50 000 scale maps, though some maps for remote northern areas are at 1:250 000 scale. Inventory maps are available from each forest district office; the district is responsible for maintaining and updating the inventory.
Recreation inventory maps are being digitized as an overlay in the Ministry of Forests provincial forest inventory database. About 45% of the inventory maps were available in digitized form in 1993.
Specific visual landscape inventories are being conducted throughout the province. These inventories provide more detailed information about visual features than exists in the recreation inventory and are used in landscape analysis, [65] the setting of visual landscape management objectives, landscape design work,[66] and treatment implementation and monitoring.
In 1991, 139 visual landscape inventory projects were completed or underway — 39 in Prince Rupert Forest Region, 38 in Kamloops Forest Region, 21 in Prince George Forest Region, 21 in Vancouver Forest Region, 11 in Nelson Forest Region and nine in Cariboo Forest Region.
The status of wilderness in B.C. was assessed by generalizing the ROS component of the recreation inventory.[67] The study was undertaken to support Ministry of Forests wilderness policy.[68] It found that in provincial forests outside parks, 51 million hectares (54% of B.C.) were roadless (primitive or semiprimitive ROS classes), including 19 million hectares in roadless areas with commercial forests (about 37% of roadless areas) and 32 million hectares in roadless areas with either non-commercial forest land or non-forest land (about 63% of roadless areas).
A special inventory of undeveloped watersheds in B.C. was completed in 1992.[69] The major findings were that in 1990:
These studies also describe the status of wilderness and undeveloped watersheds by ecoregion and biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification systems.
Rivers and trails are not adequately covered in the existing recreation inventory. A goal of the Recreation Program is to develop a recreation and heritage rivers and trails inventory and classification system in partnership with other government agencies, the Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C. and other interested organizations. Approximately 16 000 kilometres of rivers known to be navigable by canoe, kayak or raft flow through lands under the ministry’s jurisdiction and should be properly represented in the inventory. A river inventory pilot project is being undertaken to merge the recreation inventory with other relevant inventories on rivers maintained by agencies such as B.C. Environment and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
