Landscape Management Plan - Overviewlandman.ca/.../uploads/2015/09/Landscape-Management-Plan-Overvi… · Landscape Management Plan - Overview alberta.ca October 2015 Background The

Landscape Management Plan - Overview

alberta.ca October 2015

Background

The Lower Athabasca Region is one of the

seven land-use regions defined in Alberta’s

Land-use Framework and covers approximately

93,212 km2. The region is primarily known for

its oil sands and commercial development that

plays an important role in the economy of

Alberta and Canada.

The Lower Athabasca Regional Plan (LARP),

which was approved by Cabinet in 2012,

commits the government to complete a

landscape management plan as a key

management action to achieve the biodiversity

outcomes for the region.

The Landscape Management Plan (LMP) is

one of six key strategies to support achieving

Outcomes 3 and 7 in the Lower Athabasca

Regional Plan (LARP) which are:

• Outcome 3. Landscapes are managed to

maintain ecosystem function and

biodiversity; and

• Outcome 7. Inclusion of aboriginal peoples

in the development of the plan.

The LMP will also help achieve the economic

outcomes and objectives as defined in the

LARP.

For more information on LARP:

https://landuse.alberta.ca/RegionalPlans/Low

erAthabascaRegion/Pages/default.aspx

Some of the key pressures on biodiversity in

the region include natural disturbances; human-

made disturbances resulting in habitat loss,

degradation and fragmentation; and

recreational hunting, trapping and fishing. Each

individual pressure may not result in a

substantial impact on biodiversity or ecosystem

function but cumulatively they can have

significant impacts.

Human footprint refers to the alteration of

native ecosystems to support residential,

recreational and industrial land uses. The

impact of human footprint on biodiversity will

vary depending on the characteristics of the

footprint (e.g., the type and/or age of footprint)

as well by the specific element of biodiversity

(e.g., species or habitat) involved. Tracking

changes in human land use and associated

footprint is essential to understanding the state

of biodiversity.

The LMP is being developed from an integrated

resource management perspective and will

address issues related to the extent and

duration of land disturbances, such as: access

management, recreational needs, industry

access to resources, and Aboriginal interests

and priorities. Where there are local priority

issues and a need to focus planning with

specific management intent, the LMP will be

sub-divided into smaller Resource

Management Areas (RMAs). The RMAs will be

treated as separate chapters or sections in the

LMP document. At this stage of the planning

process, the planning team has identified the

following RMAs:

• The Moose Lake RMA – an area of

importance to traditional land use

• The Richardson Backcountry RMA – an

area of importance to traditional land use

and motorized recreation

• The South Athabasca Oil Sands RMA – a

primary area for projected in-situ oil sands

development.



Purpose of the Landscape Management

Plan

The primary intent of the LMP is to manage the

extent and duration of land disturbance and

development footprint to achieve biodiversity

outcomes. Specifically, the LMP will:

• Improve biodiversity performance by

avoiding intact landscapes; minimizing the

footprint necessary to develop resources;

and/or restoring legacy disturbance and

enhancing reclamation.

- Avoidance: Where appropriate, the

plan will provide management guidance

or identify areas where maintaining

existing intactness is a management

priority.

- Minimizing new disturbance: This will

be achieved through integrated land

management practices (ILM) and

management of recreational use.

- Restoration and Reclamation: The

objective and intent may be established

through specific requirements or

footprint reduction targets.

• Address cumulative effects issues in

specific Resource Management Areas

(RMAs), including Moose Lake, South

Athabasca Oils Sands, and Richardson

Backcountry recognizing the unique

pressures and Aboriginal interests in those

areas.

• Incorporate specific provisions from

existing Integrated Resource Plans (IRP)

within the Lower Athabasca Region to

ensure alignment with LARP

implementation.

• Ensure continued access to resources and

tenure to support the economic and social

outcomes in LARP.

• Guide future decision making based on

application of the most effective policy

instruments, including zoning, disturbance

limits and consideration of the potential role

of conservation offsets.



Landscape Management Plan Content

The LMP will manage extent and duration of

footprint in support of biodiversity management

and caribou. The plan will provide direction

that:

• Considers biodiversity indicators and

caribou habitat requirements.

• Sets key areas for progressive and timely

reclamation or restoration of legacy

footprint.

• Implements avoidance and minimization

strategies through Integrated Land

Management (ILM) practices to ensure

areas that are currently intact remain

relatively intact. In key areas such as

caribou ranges, specific ILM practices may

be mandatory.

• Sets management direction for motorized

and non-motorized access in the RMAs, or

other areas as required.

• Manages the cumulative effects of in-situ

development and other footprint in the

South Athabasca Oil Sands area.

• Establishes setbacks and buffers to protect

river corridors, lakes and wetlands. The

Athabasca River corridor north of Fort

McMurray will be a particular area of focus

for minimizing land disturbance.

• Incorporates applicable IRP provisions.

• Develops a system for monitoring and

reporting linear footprint and land

disturbance.

Leveraging Existing Work

In recent years, land users, in particular energy

and forest industry, have successfully

implemented strategies to reduce land

disturbance and restore legacy footprint. The

LMP will build on these efforts, in collaboration

with First Nation, Métis and stakeholders, to

develop restoration strategies that mitigate

historic footprint, and apply ILM practices. This

will result in better co-ordination of industrial

activities, such as shared road networks and

infrastructure on public lands; reducing land

disturbance of the productive forest land base

thus minimizing timber shortfalls; and reducing

environmental impacts through minimizing the

extent and duration of land disturbance

footprint.

The Cumulative Environmental Management

Association (CEMA) for the Regional

Municipality of Wood Buffalo and other

organizations have done extensive work related

to management of linear footprint and access

management. Some of their work includes:

• CEMA’s Stony Mountain 800 Access Pilot

promoted minimization and restoration of

linear features.

• CEMA’s Natural Disturbance Harvest

Pattern project examined forest harvesting

and selective linear restoration to reduce

forest fragmentation and increase the

amount of interior forest.

• CEMA’s Terrestrial Ecosystem

Management Framework developed

guidelines for mitigating impacts on

biodiversity indicators and indicators of

interest to Aboriginal people in the region.



• The Canadian Oil Sands Innovation

Alliance (COSIA) have restored many

hundreds of kilometers of seismic lines in

areas identified as priorities for caribou

habitat.

Linkage with Biodiversity Management

Framework and Caribou Range Plans

The Biodiversity Management Framework

(BMF) and the LMP are both strategies that

support the achievement of Outcome 3 in the

regional plan: Landscapes are managed to

maintain ecosystem function and biodiversity.

These complementary strategies will inform

and guide decisions on future activities, as well

as management of current activities on the

landscape. They support the objective that land

disturbance impacts to biodiversity are avoided

or minimized so that biodiversity in the Lower

Athabasca Region are maintained into the

future.

Existing and new human footprint places

significant pressure on biodiversity. The BMF

includes regional biodiversity objectives,

identifies key indicators of biodiversity, and

establishes triggers that provide a quantitative

basis for evaluating the condition of the

biodiversity indicators.

The framework commits to monitoring and

reporting on an ongoing basis. It also outlines a

process for a management response that will

be followed in the event that a trigger is

crossed. The framework builds on existing

biodiversity management efforts and enables

new action now. It provides for evaluation of the

effectiveness of land-use practices and

provides for new management actions that may

be needed in supporting the achievement of

regional objectives. There is a direct linkage to

the Landscape Management Plan as this plan

describes the strategies to manage the extent

and duration of land disturbance and

development footprint (see diagram below).

Both the Biodiversity Management Framework

and the Landscape Management Plan are part

of Alberta’s commitment to an adaptive

management model within the Integrated

Resource Management System, wherein

planners and decision-makers systematically

adapt based on new information and

knowledge, learnings, innovations, and

evolving environmental, social and economic

expectations.



The Lower Athabasca Region Biodiversity Management Framework (BMF) will:

1. Identify key indicators of biodiversity, establish trigger values, and describe a management response process

that will be followed if needed.

This will inform and support the

development of the LMP by:

Providing guidance on key biodiversity values (terrestrial and aquatic; habitat and

species) to be proactively managed for in the region over the long-term… BMF

indicators can serve to help assess whether the strategies and tools in the LMP

have been successful in maintaining or improving biodiversity condition.

Providing information on the condition of indicators today… baseline information for

a suite of biodiversity indicators can be used in modelling efforts to project future

condition (especially for indicators related to human footprint).

Providing insights on biodiversity indicators and geographic areas under pressure,

both at the regional and sub-regional scales … current information on specific areas

(watersheds, natural sub-regions, etc.) in the region can be used to inform where

proactive management action should be focussed.

Describing an approach to interpreting change over time (triggers and the

management response process) … the approach can be used in subregional

planning to inform levels of change or targets for improvements in biodiversity

condition that could be translated into subregional scale.

2. Monitor and report on the state of indicators every two years over the long-term.

This will support continuous

improvement of the LMP by:

Identifying indicators and geographic areas where ambient condition has been

maintained or is improving … where current management efforts have been

effective in maintaining or improving biodiversity.

Identifying indicators and geographic areas where ambient condition is deteriorating

… where current management efforts have not been effective in maintaining

biodiversity; may result in refinement of LMP efforts or other changes in

management efforts.

3. Support evaluation of the effectiveness of land use management decision-makers in achieving regional

biodiversity objectives.

This will serve a complementary

function to the LMP by:

Providing regular and consistent feedback to planners and decision-makers on the

condition of biodiversity allowing for an assessment of whether the cumulative

effects are being managed; regional biodiversity is being maintained; and the

overall vision of the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan is being met.



Woodland Caribou

Woodland caribou play a prominent role in the

history of Alberta and they remain an integral part

of the province’s biodiversity and a healthy

northern ecosystem. The Lower Athabasca Region

is home to several woodland caribou ranges where

populations of boreal caribou live throughout the

year in coniferous forest habitat.

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are

designated as Threatened under Alberta’s Wildlife

Act, and nationally under the federal Species at

Risk Act.

Footprint/Disturbance

Drivers of landscape change include both natural

disturbances such as forest fires, and human land

use disturbances such as forest harvesting and

energy-related developments. These

developments can have direct and indirect effects

on caribou. Disturbance and its associated impact

can vary by type – in some cases disturbances

have direct effects on caribou (e.g., loss of forage)

while in other cases disturbances have indirect

effects (e.g., population increases of other species

such as wolves, resulting in increased predation on

caribou).

Caribou Range Planning

In developing caribou range plans, Alberta is striving

to balance social and economic interests and

environmental values. Alberta is committed to

ensuring that industrial activity allows for the

persistence of caribou populations. Range plans will

seek to minimize the duration, extent, and intensity of

industrial disturbance on the landscape.

Caribou range plans must outline how the habitat

condition within a given range will be managed over

time and space to ensure that critical habitat for

boreal caribou is protected, and that each local

population will either continue to be self-sustaining or

become self-sustaining over time.

The development of range plans will include:

• Collaboration with First Nations and Métis organizations.

• Engagement with key stakeholders. Range plans will use sound habitat and population metrics in the setting of priorities and be responsive to evolving caribou and landscape conditions. Development of range plans will examine a broad range of tools and management approaches such as:

• Habitat conservation and restoration



• Integrated Land Management and other approaches to manage development

• Access management

• Wildlife population management

• Research to improve knowledge of habitat restoration techniques and needs

• Review and improvement of the Range plan through adaptive management.

Range Planning and the Landscape Management Plan

Some range plans will overlap with the LMP.

Government is striving to ensure that the

preparation of these plans offers First Nation, Métis

and stakeholders efficient opportunities to

participate, and that the resulting plans

complement each other.

The LMP is exploring ways to advance caribou

recovery through focused restoration and best

management practices. Range plans will differ in

that they directly address provision of critical

habitat for caribou and population management

measures. Further, they will address the whole of

each range, not all of which overlap the Landscape

Management Plan.

Engagement

The following components and diagram outlines

the key planning stages and proposed

engagement timelines to develop the LMP.

General Engagement Components

• Information/Fact Sheets

• Awareness/Invitation Letters

• Follow-up Calls

• Regional Meetings/Workshops

• One-on-one Meetings/Workshops

• Draft Document review

• Written Feedback/Input

• ‘What we Heard’ Documents

• Final Document Distribution

