Management Guidelines For Forestry and Resource-Based Tourism

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Management Guidelines for Forestry and Resource-Based Tourism – INTRODUCTIONcreative discussions, where both understand eachother’s interests, are often more rewarding for bothparties and enable the flexibility required to accommodateboth interests.1.3.3 Resource-based Tourism IndustryProducts - Remote, Semi-Remote &Drive-InThe resource-based tourist industry itself can be dividedinto three broad categories: remote, semi-remote anddrive-in operations. The following definitions are consistentwith and derived from Ontario’s "Resource-basedTourism Policy Information Bulletin #1 – May 1998."1. Remote Resource-based tourism - a tourismresource, opportunity, value or potential developmentthat is not accessible by road and is based on aremote wilderness experience where access is onlygained through air, water or rail. The importantattributes of this product include inaccessibility, isolationfrom visual and auditory impacts, and high qualityenvironmental resources (e.g. fish and wildlife).2. Semi-remote Resource-based tourism - similarto a remote resource-based tourism opportunityexcept that road access is limited and may be controlledthrough artificial means or the use may belimited to protect the resources, opportunity orvalue. The non-traditional means of access include:restricted road, ATV trail, marine 1 , and portage 2 .The same attributes that are important to remoteresource-based tourism are important here as well,except as how they are changed by the lesseramount of remoteness.3. Drive-in resource-based tourism - includesunencumbered road access in regards to the use ofthe resource-based tourism resource. Importantcharacteristics of this resource include full accessibility,composite use 3 , maintenance of both thevisual and auditory environmental setting 4 andaccess to good quality resources 5 .1 Marine refers to traditional waterway access.2 Portage refers to canoe routes3 Composite use refers to two or morecompatible uses co-existing in proximity to one another4 Refers to the protection of skyline areas of concern and man-madenoise abatement5 Refers to the importance of having access to ecologicallysustainable land,1.3.4 Forest Management Activities AffectingThe Resource-based Tourism IndustryIn section 1.3.1, values that are important to theresource-based tourism and forest industries werediscussed.Some tourism values such as those related to thesustainability of a fishery or moose population areaddressed in other forest management guidelines.Those tourism values which are more socially basedand are key to the management of effects at theresource-based tourism/forestry interface are thesubject of the Management Guidelines for Forestry andResource-based Tourism. Issues associated with thesevalues commonly emerge around the following areas:• Access impacts (e.g. access to previously remotelakes or rivers).• Visual impacts (e.g. harvest areas or logging roads,visible from a resource-based tourism lake orwaterbody);• Sound impacts (e.g. noise from equipment or haultrucks, heard at a remote resource-based tourismoutpost camp.)These categories are based upon predictable impacts,which have been expressed by remote resource-basedtourism industry representatives. The "remote" or"wilderness" character of an area is largely a factor ofthe relative presence or absence of visual, sound andaccess impacts caused by forest management operationsor some other user or use.In many cases, access related issues are the key concernof resource-based tourism industry and can be verytricky to adequately address. Critical attention must beprovided to finding solutions to access related effectsof forest management on the resource-based tourismindustry. It should also be noted that where accessrelated prescriptions fail to have the desired effect,immediate action must be taken to remedy the situation.This need to ensure that the intent or objectiveof the prescription is upheld is referred to by someas the "maintenance component" of an access relatedprescription.5
Management Guidelines for Forestry and Resource-Based Tourism – ADVICE TO PRACTITIONERS2.0 ADVICE TO PRACTITIONERS2.1 IntroductionThis section of the guidelines document has been preparedbecause there will be a wide variety of experienceamong forest planners and stakeholders who willbe working toward preparing prescriptions for forestryoperations in the vicinity of resource-based tourisminterests.The information presented defines the range of itemsthat must be considered when developing a forestmanagement plan or a resource stewardship agreement.After reading this section of the Guidelinesreaders may be more aware of the complexity of forestmanagement planning. This section also contains somepractical advice for those planning forestry operationsaround tourism values.2.1.1 Environmental ConsiderationsIn developing guidelines to help determine how forestoperations would be conducted in the area of concernsurrounding a resource-based tourism value, practitionersmust consider the impacts upon ecosystemdiversity and the environment - as well as the oftenmore obvious impacts upon the social and economicvalues. Many other guidelines have been developed toassist practitioners in forest management planning.These other guidelines must also be considered whiledeveloping prescriptions to address resource-basedtourism values.Since these guidelines are being prepared for use primarilywithin two forest zones in the province, it is necessaryto understand the basic ecological processes, whichfoster plant community succession in these zones.• Boreal ForestForest tree species have generally evolved to formstands of trees all of the same age, which becomeestablished following a disturbance – generally fire-and very often of a relatively large size. Other disturbancesare caused by insect attack and wind, butthese normally create fuel conditions conducive towild fire relatively shortly afterward.The age class structure of any given forest area willbe variable. One would usually find that younger ageclasses would cover a larger percentage of the landarea than older age classes. In terms of ten-year ageclasses, one could expect a progressive ratio whereeach older age class would have somewhat less areathan the age class one step younger. Relatively littlearea would likely be older than 100 years and thatwould be dominated by the forest stands growing onwetter site conditions and often consisting of blackspruce and mixtures of black spruce, cedar and larch.Older stands may also persist in areas protected fromfrequent fire by geography.• Great Lakes – St. Lawrence ForestForest tree species have evolved to create a widerrange of conditions with regard to forest cover andage structure. There are more tree species presentand there tends to be more canopy structure in manystands. Stands which are even-aged and comprised ofone or two species are relatively less common.Many stand conditions do originate with a disturbance.The disturbances are usually of a relativelysmall size (fire, wind, single tree mortality) and createopenings, which provide a variety of light, moistureand seedbed conditions on the forest floor.There are some species, which thrive in the understoryand have the potential to create self-perpetuatingforest cover over very long time periods.There are, however, other species, which dorequire larger openings in the canopy to createground level conditions that allow them to takeadvantage of full exposure to sunlight.2.1.2 Specific Environmental ConsiderationsIn determining a set of operational prescriptions for agiven value or set of values it is necessary to consider,in addition to the desires of the economic stakeholders,environmental considerations as outlined in theother forest management planning guidelines.In most cases the operational prescription described insection 3 will require that a combination of tools andapproaches will be implemented as a package. It isexpected that several tools and approaches will be usedto address protection of the value(s) – however, youwould not likely require the use of the full suite of6
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