Contributing to Conservation with Land Plans
During the Lillooet Land and Resource Management Plans in the 1990s, the Chilcotin Ark Institute and our partners were key stakeholders in creating these land plans. As a result of these meetings, land plans were created for much of the area. However, these land plans expired after 10 years. The land plans had been a long, drawn out and contentious issue, which meant the government wasn’t keen to renew the land plans.
Recognizing the need for these land plans to ensure appropriate management of the wildlife, ecosystem and human use, the Chilcotin Ark Institute stepped up to the plate and created the Lillooet Sub Region Evergreen Stewardship Plan and the South Chilcotin Evergreen Stewardship Plan. Evergreen meant they were based on timeless concepts such as defining animal winter and summer range and identifying best-use policies.
We made a website for each of these two land plans, promoting responsible management of the resource. It is important to explain that we didn’t make up the data on the websites, use our own agenda or biases, or collect the data ourselves. All the information on those websites is publicly available information from government funded or supported sources. All we did was compile the information into one place and focus it on the two specific areas we had created the plans for.
But since then, we have expanded our conservation efforts from just the Bridge River Watershed to the whole of the Chilcotin Ark. If we wanted to be responsible stewards of the whole area, that meant we needed to create land plans and corresponding websites for the rest of the Chilcotin Ark.
I hadn’t been a part of creating the first two land plans, but now I got to be part of contributing to the conservation of the whole Chilcotin Ark. Firstly, we had to define the areas that we would make land plans for. At first, we split the Ark up into regions one way that seemed logical. However, we soon realized that the best way to group the land plans was by watershed. These were nature’s boundaries, and following nature’s lead is always the most successful when we are working with wilderness concepts.
There would be eleven land plans in total. From south to north through the Chilcotin Ark, our land plans were for Lillooet, the South Chilcotins, Taseko Lake, Chilko Lake / Nemaih Valley, Tatlayoko Lake, West Branch Valley, Kleena Kleene, Atnarko River, Lower Dean River, Itcha Ilgachuz and Upper Eutsuk Lake.
Now we had the names of the areas we were making land plans for, there were lots of pieces of the puzzle to put together. My job was to set up the websites, one for each land plan, get the domains and do the back end set up. Manon and Paul, with their knowledge of GIS technology got to work making maps for each land plan so we could show everyone where the area was and how it fitted alongside the other land plans of the Chilcotin Ark. John worked on taking the content we already had from the two original land plans and finding the universal points, as well as adjusting it to fit each area. For example, mule deer are found in each of the land plan areas, but Bighorn sheep are only in the southeast area. As mule deer live in a certain type of habitat, the general management for them for each land plan would be the same, with some specific differences such as if one area had a greater amount of public access that could impact the deer. As Bighorn sheep weren’t found in the other watersheds, they didn’t need to be included in the plans for those northern watersheds.
Once all this information was put together, it was time to get the content up on the websites. It was a big job, but we had it done quickly. We were all committed to making our contribution to the conservation of the Chilcotin Ark.
While getting out in the bush and doing wildlife population counts or collecting grizzly hair or white bark pinecones are some ways of contributing to conservation, creating land plans is a high-level contribution. Managing the resource so it isn’t overused or destroyed allows ecosystems, wildlife and wild plants to continue long into the future. Having land plans can influence many things including hunting regulations, motorized vehicle closures, creation of new parks, reintroductions of extirpated species and many other high-level, legislation and planning related decisions. This is good for the environment, but also good for us as we have more wild spaces to benefit from. So, while working on land plans might not get us out in the field, it is an equally impactful way to get involved in conservation.
by Charlie B., UK / Canada
