Understand the “paradigm shift” in landscape planning and management
Webinar Summary
The Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C.’s February webinar featured a conversation with Garry Merkel, a member of the Tahltan Nation and a registered professional forester based in the Kootenays. He co-chaired the 2020 Old Growth Strategic Review, which called for a paradigm shift in how the provincial government plans and manages Crown lands and waters. Merkel is one of the top experts in landscape planning and First Nations relations in the province. He spoke on the potential implications of the changes to landscape management and planning on outdoor recreation in British Columbia.
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View Garry’s Slides
key takeaways:
Garry Merkel talked to the ORCBC about the shift in how we manage land and water in B.C. As co-author of the Old Growth Strategic Review, he heard from thousands of British Columbians during 200 engagement meetings in 45 communities.
“Only two people said we’re doing fine. Everyone else said we need to change this. This model that we’re working with is unsustainable in the long term. We’re leaving our kids a really ugly mess to clean up."
The review called for a “paradigm shift” in landscape-level planning. The thrust of the shift is to think of the land like an ecosystem and to plan and manage it with ecosystem health in mind. Merkel now advises the provincial government, First Nations and stakeholders on how to implement this shift.
Three levels of change are needed:
Governance: from an obligation to consult and accommodate to a collaborative management model
Decision making: from centralized to regional and ecologically focused
Management goal: from what can we take (resources) to ecological health and biodiversity
“Every one of these changes requires a huge change in the way we think,” he says.
Sticky points to change:
The way the system is set up: “A very deeply rooted bias towards timber in the province, a lot like Alberta does with oil and gas.
Getting our minds around it. “We have to learn how to think like an ecosystem and plan like an ecosystem.
Change thinking away from “it’s okay to destroy the ecological integrity of this area over here because we’ve saved the tops of a bunch of mountains over here. The land doesn’t work like that.”
What it means for recreation:
Less motorized access to the landscape. “That sucks...but in the bigger scheme of things, if we don’t, we’re not going to be able to go up there and see anything anymore because [all the animals ] will be gone.”
Closing areas for a season or time period to allow recovery. Large mammals disturbed by human presence and impact is cumulative.
Less bureaucratic and more goal-oriented decision-making. Up to recreation interests to ensure infrastructure projects fit within the outcome expectations for an ecosystem or region.
Action items: “The world is run by those who showed up, so get involved.”
Get involved
Learn ecosystem thinking
Share with colleagues and collaborators
Think bigger: large ecosystem rather than local area
Learn First Nations thinking and stewardship
Uncover biases and work to eliminate them
Request guidance from government
The ultimate goal:
“Maybe someday we get to this place where we’ve achieved a level of land stewardship where we have restored ecosystem health and biodiversity right across the province and get a stable flow of resources that can provide a solid, stable base for an economy.”
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