Province not Prepared for ‘Big Boom’ Impacts in Northern Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is ill prepared to manage the environmental impacts that the economic boom is bringing to northern Saskatchewan. The boreal forest is experiencing unprecedented development activity that is introducing an astonishing jumble of unnatural and often harmful impacts.

The good news, is most of our northern forest is still healthy. And we can keep it that way. There is plenty of information available on how to plan and manage activities for both economic development and ecological health. It requires a significant shift however, in how land use planning is currently done.

The Saskatchewan Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is calling on provincial decision-makers to introduce conservation-based planning measures throughout northern Saskatchewan. This will allow for developments to take place on Crown lands while taking care of the forest, local economies and indigenous cultures. ‘Our province needs to pursue economic development in a responsible way’ says Colleen Rickard, Program Director of CPAWS. ‘This means using conservation-based planning methods that look at ecological issues alongside economic ones. Livelihoods of people depend on healthy places. If we implement planning measures that take care of the forest, we also preserve local cultures and strengthen and diversify northern economies’.

Government land use planning has been underway for about a decade in various parts of the Saskatchewan forest, but plans aren’t taking care of the forest. In efforts to maximize economic development, government plans open huge areas up to industrial activity without incorporating sound conservation measures recommended by nature-based sciences and local wisdom. Government plans do not address what the forest ecosystem is sensitive to and what it can stand. They do not address declining species (such as the woodland caribou and some songbirds). They do not consider impacts to indigenous cultures. They do not incorporate much-need protection measures. They do not address cumulative impacts. And they do not keep an eye on the future by asking how today’s actions will impact the potential options and abilities of northern citizens to make a living and feed their families.

Conservation-based plans are being developed and implemented in other places in Canada and the world because they offer practical solutions for responsible land use. The health of the land is at the forefront of all decision-making, using credible science, local and traditional knowledge, and other best-available information about the land as backdrops. Networks of protected areas are established to link a mix of habitats across the landscape. Resource extraction activities are identified and managed at levels that don’t hurt the forest. Nature-sensitive resource extraction methods are a requirement. And all decision-making looks carefully at how human activities impact upon one another.

A short list of northern development activities includes timber harvesting, mining, drilling, tar sands projects, peat harvesting, water diversions, water draining, river damming, forest clearing (for agriculture) and road and trail developments. These activities fragment habitats, change natural predator-prey relationships, contaminate waters, upset seasonal flows, drain rivers and streams, pollute the air, hinder wildlife movements, impede wildlife reproduction, decimate species, introduce invasive species, destroy tourism values, remove options for traditional harvests, and so on.

Climate Change: Perhaps one of the greatest concerns regarding indiscriminate use of the forest is the impact that developments have on the forest’s overall ability to adapt to changes brought on by global warming. In our quest for money and jobs, we are changing nature, making it harder for plants and animals to survive. Global warming threatens to overlay a new set of impacts because of increased drying and burning. Forest ecosystems will change. Stressed wildlife will become more stressed. And as over-stressed species flounder and disappear, the web of life in the forest begins to unravel. This domino effect towards the demise of the forest is just one of many potential outcomes associated with climate change. The good news is, it can be minimised if we preserve a healthy forest ecosystem at the outset. In so doing, the native plants and animals will have a better chance to adapt to change as it comes.

Government land use plans place undue reliance on operational business plans and environmental impact assessments to take care of the forest. While such efforts are important for many reasons, heavy reliance on them is dangerous. First, there are many unknowns about the efficacy of operational plans and assessments to actually preserve ecosystems. Second, operational plans and assessments are developed on a project by project basis. As such, individual projects are not designed (or required) to address how they overlap and add to other impacts on the landscape. Third, environmental impact assessments often don’t happen because many projects simply are not required to do environmental impact assessments.

The province’s current protected areas program is profoundly inadequate to support habitats and wildlife populations. Methods and criteria used to select protected areas are weak and deficient. Sites chosen are inadequate. Forest ecology, forest sensitivities and forest functioning often have little to do with site selection. Instead, industry needs and arbitrary caps on how much can be protected, are driving forces.

There are three good conservation-based land use plans in Saskatchewan, but none have been implemented. These plans integrate conservation science, local knowledge, economic considerations, and best-available information about the planning areas, to develop solutions that allow for careful development and protection. The provincial government helped fund two of the three: the Athabasca plan in the far north and the Great Sand Hills in the prairies (southwest). The third plan (known as the Uskiy Puhco plan) was funded, developed and submitted by citizens to assist with the government’s North Central planning process in the forest (see background material for more).

Conservation-based land use planning is a method endorsed by experts. For example, in the North Central land use planning process, two plans were eventually produced – one by government and one by citizens. The citizens who produced the Uskiy Puhco plan asked respected boreal ecologists and planners from across Canada to review both the Uskiy Puhco plan and the government draft plan. Four out of four reviewers endorsed the Uskiy Puhco plan and criticized the government draft plan. In the words of reviewer Dr. Kevin Timoney, “the government has presented the people of Northern Saskatchewan with a ‘business as usual’ plan… If the people choose to acquiesce with this plan, they may lose their healthy land and water and the culture and traditions that depend on them.”

Saskatchewan citizens are the prescribed stewards of Saskatchewan’s boreal forest. We have an amazing opportunity to use the land wisely and to take care of it. Forests have long been described as the lungs of the earth and the water filtration plants of the world. As part of the great circumpolar boreal forest, our forest plays vital roles in sustaining earth’s life-support systems and global climate regulation. Half of our province is forest. The trees, lakes, rivers, marshes, uplands and wildlife are a gift. We, the citizens of Saskatchewan, are responsible for looking after it – for the world, our children, northern people, forest creatures, future generations and for a diversity of activities now and in the future. Conservation-based land use planning protects and maintains forest health, while allowing for economic development.

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Submitted by the Saskatchewan Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
Suite 203, 115-2nd Avenue North, Saskatoon, SK S7K 2B1
Phone: 306-955-6197 Fax: 306-665-2128 Email: info@cpaws-sask.org Web: www.cpaws-sask.org

Background Materials:

1. Contacts:

Colleen Rickard, Program Director
Saskatchewan Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS)
Phone: 306-955-6197 or 306-477-2889
Email: rickard.cpaws@sasktel.net
Website: www.cpaws-sask.org

Dr. Kevin Timoney, Ph.D.
Treeline Ecological Research, Sherwood Park, Alberta
Science Peer Reviewer of the Uskiy Puhco plan and draft government plan in the North Central Land Use planning process.
Phone: 780-922-3741
Email: ktimoney@interbaun.com

Alan Appleby, MSc
Alan G Appleby Consulting Services
Former CPAWS SK Conservation Director working on Great Sand Hills Project and the Athabasca land use plan.
Phone: 705-653-4739
Email: appleby@persona.ca

2. Conservation-based Land Use Planning – An Overview
Conservation-based land use planning (CLUP) is a land use management system that is grounded in conservation science and traditional knowledge. It seeks a balance between human land use and land protection by looking at the full range of human needs and planning for activities that lie within the ecological limits of the forest ecosystem.

An underlying principle of CLUP is the idea that sustainable economies and cultures depend on healthy ecosystems. Conservation-based land use planning…

a) Uses the Precautionary Principle. CLUP seeks to address the fact that human activities foster many impacts on the land that often go unmeasured and unconsidered. It does this by using caution in making decisions about land use, recognising that boreal forests are fragile, complex and poorly understood ecosystems. Best available information about how the forest works and what it is sensitive to is used to help guide decision-making for both protection and human land use.

b) Chooses first what to leave and then what to take. CLUP recognises that carefully chosen networks of conservation areas (also called protected areas) play a vital role in successful land use management. In the wake of uncertainties about how human activities impact ecosystems, conservation areas act as ecological insurance packages and as comparison sites for research. In CLUP, conservation networks are carefully designed to help preserve wildlife populations and to accommodate the forests natural changes that take place over short, medium and long time periods. Many light ‘footprint’ activities such as tourism and traditional resource harvests can take place in conservation areas but industrial activities such as commercial logging and mining are off-limits.

c) Plans to diversify economies. CLUP takes a diversified approach to economic development with a primary goal to create a mix of lasting opportunities for communities. Planning investigates and addresses how different activities impact the land and if they could foreclose on one another. Resource extraction activities are required to meet world-class standards for protecting the environment.

For more detail on CLUP, visit: www.cpaws-sask.org/parks_wilderness/clup_overview.htm

3. Conservation-Based Plans in Saskatchewan

a) Great Sand Hills Regional Environmental Study (195,000 ha in south-western Saskatchewan)
The Great Sand Hills occupy one of the last, large, contiguous native prairie ecosystems in Canada. Much of the region supports ranching families that live in the area. Oil and gas is the only large-scale threat to the natural integrity of Sand Hills.

Discussions and planning for land use in the Great Sand Hills have been underway for at least two decades. In 2005, the Government of Saskatchewan partnered with the Universities of Regina and Saskatchewan to develop a Great Sand Hills regional environmental study. Its purpose was to help establish a long-term management plan that would preserve the economic and environmental values in the Great Sand Hills. A Scientific Advisory Committee oversaw the process and submitted a final report to government in summer 2007. Government publicly accepted the report and its recommendations in July 2007. Implementation of the plan has still not happened.

This study is the first (and only) conservation-based land use planning effort to be funded and publicly endorsed by the provincial government.

b) Athabasca Land Use Plan (11 million ha; traditional territories of the Athabasca Denesuline First Nations)
The Athabasca planning region occupies the northern third of Saskatchewan’s boreal forest. Major ecological threats to the region are mining, mineral exploration and roads.

The Athabasca land use plan is the largest land use planning initiative ever undertaken in Saskatchewan. It is premised on a unique agreement between the Prince Albert Grand Council, the Dené First Nations, the communities of the area and the Province.

CPAWS joined the Athabasca land use planning process in 2001 and supported the vision of the Athabasca people to produce a land use and conservation plan for Dené traditional territories.

The commitments made by the Government of Saskatchewan to the residents and First Nations of the Athabasca region in the 2000 Athabasca Planning and Management Development Agreement have not been honoured. The Government of Saskatchewan betrayed its undertakings to work jointly with the Athabasca to create a land use and conservation plan for the region that would ensure
 that only sustainable development would be permitted to occur in the region;
 that lands and resources of unique cultural and ecological value would be permanently protected;
 that residents of the region would be primary beneficiaries of development, and
 that a regional management structure would be developed that would enable residents to effectively participate in all resource management decisions affecting the region.

All of these objectives were addressed in the Athabasca Land Use Plan Stage 1 as presented in the Public Review process and subsequently submitted to the Minister of the Environment. The government's response has been to delay approval, request major changes that undermine all of the principal objectives, reject regional participation in resource management and delay permanent protection of land and resources.

In July 2007 the Athabasca Denesuline Chiefs appealed to Premier Calvert to re-commit his government to the objectives of the 2000 agreement and to suspend further development approvals until the planning and management development agreement is honoured and the Crown meets its obligations to consult, accommodate and reconcile with the Denesuline First Nations where development impacts their Treaty and Aboriginal rights. Saskatchewan's response is to continue approving mineral and roadway development without adequate consultation and with no approved or implemented land use plan.

c) North Central Land Use Plan (3.5 million hectares; traditional territories of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band)
The North Central land use planning (NCLUP) region covers a large forested area that extends roughly from Lac La Ronge to Key Lake mine-site (southeast of Cree Lake). Major ecological threats include forestry, mining and road construction.

Two key circumstances inspired development of the land use plan: 1) In the 1990’s Saskatchewan citizens objected loudly and publicly to commercial logging in an area within the NCLUP known as the Nameiben Block. Government responded by saying that they would do a land use plan with public input; 2) The Lac La Ronge Indian Band was seeking a 20-year forestry licence for its traditional territories. A land use plan was required (by law) before the licence could be considered.

Stakeholders and community representatives of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band began attending government-led land use planning meetings in 2001. Terms of Reference endorsed by the planning team stated that the land use plan would address social, cultural, economic and environmental issues for the area, and that an ecosystem-based approach would be used to develop the plan.

Early into the process, planning team members realized that government was not prepared to supply information that would facilitate ecosystem-based planning (also called conservation-based planning). A sub-group of the planning team responded by engaging and working with a forest planning consultant (Silva Forest Foundation) to gather information, conduct field studies, map and analyse data, and assembled results (the sub-group included band members, other northern residents and NGOs). The group’s information was presented to the North Central planning table. Government’s response to the presentation was to disband the entire planning table and retreat to write its own land use plan. A second planning team, made up of mostly new people, was formed by government in 2005.

After the government disbanded the planning table, the sub-group of the original planning team formed an informal organization called Uskiy Puhco. They continued to collect information and share it with others.

In 2006 Government released its draft plan for public review. In response, Uskiy Puhco submitted its research report (Towards Ecosystem-based Conservation Planning in the North Central Plan Area) and the government draft plan (Draft 2 North Central Integrated Forest Land Use Plan) for a scientific peer review. Four Canadian boreal forest ecologists and planners were asked to comment on each plan’s value in 1) following conservation principles (as per science literature); 2) providing a quality protected areas design; 3) protecting forest integrity; and 4) maintaining resources for subsistence economies. The reviewers praised the direction the Uskiy Puhco work was taking and criticised the government draft plan because of its lack of substance and inability to sustain a healthy forest and local economies.

Government ignored the peer review results. They tried to discredit the Uskiy Puhco work by criticizing the consultant who helped produce the Uskiy Puhco plan and by writing a government critique of the Uskiy Puhco report. In spite of repeated requests from Uskiy Puhco, government refused to meet with members of Uskiy Puhco if their consultant was present.

The leadership of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band was and is anxious to see the land use plan completed because they want to move ahead with a forestry licence that will give them a meaningful say about how land use is managed on their traditional territories. The leadership of the band joined the planning discussions in the latter stages of the process and promoted approval of the government land use plan.

The draft plan has not been finalized. Saskatchewan continues to approve logging, mineral and roadway development in the planning region without adequate consultation and with no approved or implemented land use plan. The promises of the Saskatchewan government to citizens of Saskatchewan, that an ecosystem-based plan would be prepared and implemented for the North Central region, have not been kept.

For more information visit:
www.cpaws-sask.org/boreal_forest/north_central_land_use_plan_background.htm
www.cpaws-sask.org/common/pdfs/cpaws_submission_to_gov_on_draft2_lup_mar06.pdf

4. Conservation-Based Land Use Planning in Other Places

a) Yellowstone to Yukon (Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, Yukon): www.y2y.net

b) Muskwa Kechika Management Area (British Columbia): www.muskwa-kechika.com

c) DehCho Land Use Planning (Northwest Territories): www.dehcholands.org/home.htm

d) Innu Boreal Framework Land Use Planning (Labrador):
www.borealcanada.ca/pdf/action_plans/Boreal-Framework-Action-Plan-Innu.pdf
www.davidsuzuki.org/files/Conservation/Conference/Valerie_Courtois_and_Larry_Innes.pdf

e) Poplar River Lands Management Plan (Manitoba): www.poplarriverfirstnation.ca