B.C. cancels more than one million acres of conservation lands and wildlife habitat areas

View of Deep Creek facing south in a valley of trees
Deep Creek, an area under cancellation in the Bulkley Valley, is a Wildlife Habitat Management Area noted for bear, deer, moose and elk habitat that Biologists say should be reinstated and given legal protections. Source: Submitted
Daniel Mesec - CICK - SmithersBC | 01-06-2023
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More than 1.35 million acres of conservation and recreational lands in Northwest B.C. was cancelled by the provincial government over the past few years. 

Areas that community groups, municipalities, First Nations and Government spent years working through land designation precesses to ensure these areas were off limits to industrial development, especially logging. 

But after years of combing through government reports and data, Len Vanderstar, a former provincial government habitat biologist is calling-out the B.C. government for not following their own policy in making these cancellations. 

“The risk of incompatible development in these land parcels, that are contrary to their management direction, is worrying to many residents of the Skeena Region,” said Vanderstar.

Although the provincial government has since put a hold on any further cancellations, it's still unclear if and when these areas will be logged.

Listen to the full episode on CICK News below.