Provincial government officials are seeking comment on a set of proposed objectives for the Sea to Sky Land and Resources Management Plan (LRMP) intended to help guide forest users in the protection of First Nations cultural interests, riparian areas and activities in flood plains.

The Sea to Sky LRMP, which covers almost 1.1 million hectares stretching from Lions Bay to D’Arcy, was adopted in April 2008. Peter Vershoor, land and resource specialist with B.C.’s Integrated Land Management Bureau (ILMB), on Friday (Aug. 20) said adoption of land-use objectives is part of the process of implementing the plan.

The objectives aim to ensure that land uses in the Sea to Sky region adhere to separate land-use agreements the B.C. government has signed with the Squamish, Lil’wat and In-SHUCK-ch nations. In part, those agreements mandate protection of First Nations cultural places and cultural management areas in accordance with the nations’ own land-use plans for their traditional territories.

Forestry companies operating in the corridor are most likely to be affected by the objectives, Vershoor said.

“When the LRMP was approved, it was a policy piece, but we needed to put that into an objective, legal form to fit with regulations,” he said. “Now, when a forest licencee puts forward their Forest Stewardship Plan, they’ll need to show how they’re being consistent with those objectives.”

In addition to seeking comment on the objectives, the ILMB and Ministry of Forests and Range are seeking comment on an amendment to the LRMP that would see the boundary of the LRMP’s Soo landscape unit adjusted to exclude all of the tenure area for the Cheakamus Community Forest (CCF). The CCF, partnership between the Resort Municipality of Whistler, the Squamish and Lil’wat nations, covers approximately 30,000 hectares of land surrounding Whistler.

“When the Community Forest was designated, it overlapped three separate landscape units, and what this is doing is just connecting the land-unit boundaries so that (the Community Forest) all within a single forest unit,” Vershoor said. “It makes administering those areas that much easier.”

Copies of the order and more information are available at www.ilmb.gov.bc.ca/slrp/legalobjectives/advertisedLUORs.html.

Written comments may be submitted by Oct. 17 to Jeff Juthans of the ILMB, South Coast Service Centre, 200, 10428 153rd St., Surrey, BC V3R 131, by fax to (604) 586-4434 or by email to Jeff.Juthans@gov.bc.ca