Crowsnest Pass
A new forest management plan for the Crowsnest Pass area is designed to support forest health in a region dominated by large stands of over-mature timber at risk of catastrophic wildfire and insect attack, protect water resources and support Alberta’s Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan.

Under the plan, timber harvesting is limited to one-third of C5 and occurs each year on less than one per cent of the 114,000 hectares available for commercial forestry.

This plan was developed through stakeholder input, public consultation and scientific review of potential resource development impacts in the region.

The new C5 Forest Management Plan meets the Canadian Standards Association’s internationally accepted standards for sustainable forest management, including conserving biological diversity, forest ecosystem condition and function and soil and water resources.

“This plan was prepared with input from stakeholders and residents, and updates the initial plan developed in 1986,” said Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight in a July 15 news release. “It incorporates a tremendous amount of hard work, community input and sound science, and I’m pleased to see it put into practice.”

Objectives of the C5 plan include sustainable management of timber resources while minimizing impacts on non-timber values, protecting water resources and addressing regional forest health issues. The plan also supports Alberta’s Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan.

For example, resource roads must be decommissioned once access is no longer required.

The plan was developed from 2002 to 2006, but final government approval was deferred in 2007 pending completion of the Oldman Watershed Council’s State of the Watershed Report, released in April 2010.

The C5 plan covers a multiple-use zone that has seen commercial activity for more than a century, including timber harvesting, oil and gas development and cattle grazing.

The area includes 351,823 hectares — an area six times the size of the City of Edmonton — from the northern boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park to Pekisko Creek in southern Kananaskis Country.

Once it is complete, the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan, now under development, may require changes to the C5 Forest Management Plan.