Visual resource management is about identifying and classifying scenic landscapes and managing forestry activities on the landscape to meet the needs of the public, visitors and other resource users.
During its day, the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act (the Code) provided tools for the management of scenic resources. Today the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) identifies scenery as one of the eleven forest values to be managed and includes provisions to establish visual quality objectives (VQOs).
Visual quality objectives are the means by which society identifies the level of disturbance that would be acceptable on a viewscape. Under the FPC, VQOs were established by the DM or contained in a higher level plan (HLP). Under FRPA, the Minister or his designate will establish them.
Effectiveness evaluations are about determining if values are being managed sustainably - are we headed in the right direction (i.e., were objectives achieved)?
The Forest and Range Evaluation Program hopes to eventually look at conducting evaluations in all 11 value areas defined under FRPA. However, it will be a few years before FSPs are in place and the effectiveness of policy and procedures can be investigated. In the meantime visual resource practitioners feel that there are evaluation questions that can be asked and investigated independently of the legal framework. One such question is: are our viewscapes being managed and conserved? This was a principle test under the FPC and government has stated that there must be equality under FRPA.
Given this question, a small working group, made up of regional visual specialists, a representative from both the Forest Practices Board and UBC, has been formed. A workshop was held in mid-January to begin the process of developing the indicators that could be used to answer the above question.
At this first meeting we concluded that this question is, in fact, applicable at several levels:
- At the operational level, we might investigate whether the RVQCs/VQOs are being achieved on an opening-by-opening basis (some would call this monitoring);
- At the TFL or TSA level, we might investigate whether a particular licensee is achieving objectives on average across their licence area by looking at numerous openings; and
- At the provincial level we might roll up the results of several licensees and TSAs to determine how we are doing provincially.
The results of our workshop are being incorporated into the development of indicators for use at the operational level. The expected result is that it will be possible to roll up data at the licence level to determine if licensees are achieving objectives, on average, across a given license; and determine how we are doing across the province.
It is envisioned that a draft indicators and procedures document will be available for testing shortly.
ResourcesThe following are Visual Quality related resources:
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