Information is needed to help forest managers reduce the visual impact of timber management where the public's image of the landscape may be disrupted. Visual impact magnitude may be assessed by extent of deviation from the characteristic landscape. From analysis of 43 visual impacts in the Windermere Public Sustained Yield Unit (P.S.Y.U.) in south-eastern British Columbia, and from selected literature, the independent and interacting visual effects of seventy timber management practices are identified, and rated as inevident, subordinate, or dominant in comparison with visual elements of the landscape. The visual effect of a given practice in a given forest landscape type is predictable with detailed knowledge of both, in most cases. The visual impact magnitude of a timber: management activity can be predicted from the number of most negative visual effects caused by the combination of management practices used. Practices introducing low visual effects or cancelling those of other practices are identified as landscape design tools. Use of landscape design tools is generally compatible with other forest environmental management aims, though exceptions of local importance are foreseen. Forest administration in British Columbia needs to be modified to accommodate visual constraints on timber management. In a case study in the Cartwright Lakes/Steamboat Mountain area in the Windermere P.S.Y.U., the costs of using design tools instead of conventional practices are estimated in three potential logging sites. Lower visual impact magnitudes can be achieved using common logging systems without significant cost increases, where some timber is left between settings in visually critical sites. Unconventional logging systems can raise or lower costs with or without visual constraints, but use as design tools may reduce extra costs on land that is costly to log. With government cut and leave policy and restrictions on logging methods, use of landscape design tools in high priority sites can have negligible cost increases, but it is not known how widely the case study conditions occur elsewhere. A procedure for visual impact planning is advanced, comprising analysis of biophysical and viewing conditions, identification of forest landscape types and visual objectives and selection of design tools to fit them, detailed planning of visual impacts, and graphic prediction of the outcome. Continuing research is needed to substantiate the study findings, and priorities are suggested. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

This research addresses the question of effective public participation in resource management decisions within the context of resource-based communities. Despite advances in mechanisms for enabling public input, over the past 30 years, public participation remains problematic. Rather than promoting genuine communication and strengthening relationships between government, resource industries and communities, public participation often becomes an exercise in frustration that increases the adversarial nature of public policy decision-making. Evaluations of public participation have been undertaken across a broad spectrum of academic disciplines, with much emphasis placed on criteria relating to the process and outcome dimensions. The majority of approaches intend to provide universally applicable structures for public participation regardless of the socio-economic, cultural, institutional, or political context within which the process takes place. The purpose of this research was to determine whether consideration of contextual factors can enhance the effectiveness of public participation evaluation. Drawing on the experience of the Commission on Resources and Environment (CORE) process in the Slocan Valley, British Columbia, an in-depth analysis of the pre-process (antecedents), process, and post-process (outcomes) phases of the CORE consultations was performed. The qualitative research involved analysis of case-related documents relating to resource use history, community actors, record of public participation, as well as the application of a multi-criteria evaluation framework to the CORE process. The research revealed the iterative connections between antecedents, process and outcomes. A number of contextual factors placed significant constraints on the effectiveness of the public participation exercise. Intra-community factors included the polarization of interests and a legacy of distrust. These antecedent problems were exacerbated after-the process. Extra-com

Government funding for silviculture in British Columbia has expanded recently, but remains well short of the level recommended by many foresters. This thesis contains a proposal to replace government funding with investment from capital markets. It describes the funding mechanism, analyzes the implications to government, and introduces a method of distributing investment funds through a system of competitive bidding between forest management companies. In return for their participation, investors and forest companies would both receive equity in future timber production. The thesis concludes that at a cost of foregoing 50% of its future stumpage revenue, government might replace its current spending on intensive forest management with a funding level from capital markets of $500 million to $800 million per year. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

A grizzly bear habitat classification was developed by modifying and expanding the climax-based Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) to accommodate serai vegetation. Locations of radio-collared bears were assigned to a large number (N=110) of structurally and floristically unique habitats. An interpretive classification of 14 Bear Habitat Units (BHUs) was derived from the taxa of the BEC system; units were amalgamated on the basis of grizzly bear habitat value and similarity of response to forest management practices. Fifteen climax forest, three subalpine, three wetland, and three avalanche chute units were identified and described in the lower Kimsquit River. Two adult female grizzly bears (numbers 08 and 25) were monitored for 1238 and 1196 days, respectively, from April 1982 to October 1985 and had multi-annual minimum convex polygon (MCP) home ranges of 85 km² (N=23 6), and 60 km² (N=241). River floodplain BHUs were used most heavily by bears 08 and 25 during their active seasons (65% of locations and 51% of time for bear 08; 75% of locations and 63% of time for bear 25) followed by avalanche chutes and sidehill climax and old-growth forests. Rank testing between quality/quantity indices (food plant nutrient content, biomass, berry abundance) and grizzly bear use indicated that movements were generally correlated with food availability at the higher, or BHU, level of the classification (rs=0.61 and 0.83, p<.05 for bears 08 and 25, respectively). Salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and insects were the only common non-plant items in a diet of over 3 0 species, although food habits differed between bears. It is concluded that, although food plays a critical role in habitat selection of coastal grizzly bears, a relatively rich environment precludes the need for individuals to forage optimally at a micro-habitat level. Except for the early spring and late fall, food can be found in a number of units that collectively meet life requisites. These analyses were used in combination with other use and habitat quality information to develop seasonal habitat values. Assigned values allowed predictions about the effects of forest management practices on habitat capability. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

Increasing demands for the natural resources of British Columbia coastal forests have led to conflicts between resource users. In addition recent demand for intangible "non-economic" resources, such as outdoor recreation is creating added pressure upon the wildland resource base. The British Columbia Forest Service, although restricted to some extent by a narrowly-worded "wood production" statute, has attempted to resolve forest resource conflicts by administrative action such as the development of new contract provisions and logging guidelines. These alternatives can be effectively enforced against Crown licensees due to Crown control of most timber resources, but they are largely ineffective for the regulation of private timberland operations. Although private lands are not extensive, their harvest is substantial and they comprise a significant acreage in the rich coastal forest areas. The common law offers several potential causes of action which might be employed by the Forest Service to regulate logging operations on private timberlands, particularly with respect to impact upon fishery resources in coastal forest streams. The Forest Act could also be interpreted to authorize regulation of private logging operations. Litigation, whether civil or criminal, however, is not an optimum method of environmental management. It is expensive, time-consuming, extremely technical and remedies are generally post facto in character. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

No description available.

The general increased demand for all types of land by various users has intensified the problem of estimating the value of forest land, and of attempting to bring about its best use. This thesis sets forth the theoretical conditions necessary for the optimum distribution of land resources, and analyses some of the barriers which exist in the real world, both in the market and in the sphere of public decision-making. Current methods of evaluating forest land in B.C. are reviewed. The varied reasons for an appraisal: investment, expropriation, condemnation, damage appraisal, taxation, comparative evaluation and transfer of tenure, effectively divide this portion of the study, and form a basis for comparison. Demands for forest land, singly and on a multiple-use basis can only be arbitrated by a supra government body recruited from a disinterested group of professional resource managers. It is imperative that this department be provided with the knowledge necessary to construct economic as well as technical priority scales, so that decisions can be rational, and lead toward the best use of the resource. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

According to several recent studies, the future of the forest industry in British Columbia is in jeopardy. If present forestry management practices are continued, it is conceivable that within the next decade the timber harvest will decline, employment will be severely reduced, and government revenue from the forest resource will be significantly less than in previous decades. Public ownership of the vast majority of provincial forest land means that government policies are largely responsible for this state of affairs. However, there are relatively few academic studies of the history of those policies. The purpose of this thesis is to review the evolution one aspect of forest policy, the way in which timber is allocated in British Columbia, and to analyze the dynamics of this evolution in light of six alternative theories of the policy-making process. Forest policy in British Columbia is extremely complicated and is the result of decisions made to meet various demands at different times in history. It is only through a detailed understanding of the history of forest policy and the nature of the provincial state that planners, resource managers, and public policy-makers can attempt to resolve the current crisis in the forest industry. Public timber is allocated to private forest companies in British Columbia by a variety of tenures. The form of these tenures has changed dramatically over time. Prior to 1912, access to the forest resource was granted primarily by leases and licenses which carried few restrictions and relatively low royalties and rents. These tenures were perpetually renewable until the merchantable timber was removed. Between 1912 and 1947 the primary method of disposing crown timber was through competitive bidding on short-term timber sales. The crown not only received royalties and rental fees from these Timber Sale Licenses, but also a bid price. The Forest Branch established a minimum bid price based on the value of the end product minus the costs of production and an allowance for profit and risk. After 1947, the government attempted to regulate the harvest of timber in such a way as to guarantee a perpetual supply of timber. They did this by awarding huge tracts of public land to owners of private forest land and perpetual tenures in order for them to manage the whole property on a sustained yield basis. On the remaining majority of forest land the government set aside large areas which were to be managed by the public sector on sustained yield principles. Over time, as a result of these policies, competition for the resource was virtually eliminated and, as one consequence, the government always received the appraised upset price for timber. It appears that this has undervalued the crown's share of the resource rent. The combined effect of timber allocation policies after 1947 was to accommodate, if not encourage, the consolidation of timber rights. In order to explain the evolution of timber policy in British Columbia and to guide future policy development, the thesis examines six broad theories of how the state operates. These are categorized as follows: rationalist, pluralist, neo-conservative, neo-marxist instrumentalist, neo-marxist structuralist, and Canadian. After reviewing these theories the thesis concludes that elements of each theory can be employed to explain different policy changes over time. No single theoretical model is totally adequate to answer the question of why B.C. governments' acted the way they did. Nevertheless, the neo-marxist structuralist and Canadian theories provide the fullest explanation of the role of the state in British Columbia. It is apparent that large forest companies have had a disproportionate influence on public forest policies. Over time, the provincial state has become increasingly dependent on those companies to carry out many forest policy objectives, to provide employment arid generate tax revenues. New resource policies designed to meet the current crisis in the forest industry must recognize these two important facts. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate