Natural Resource Officers

British Columbia has numerous laws to protect its land, water, forests and cultural resources. Natural Resource Officers (NROs) work throughout British Columbia to ensure compliance with legislation and take enforcement actions as necessary.

Mandate of NROs

Natural Resource Officers (NROs) conduct compliance inspections and take enforcement actions, including investigations of:

• Commercial business operations
• Activities of individual members of the public

They also enforce compliance with government regulations that have been established to:

Protect the environment

• Landslide areas
• Streams and fish habitat
• Community watersheds
• Productive forests, biodiversity considerations and sensitive ecosystems

Prevent revenue loss

• Unauthorized harvest of trees or other forest products
• Land use authorizations
• Revenue recoveries related to forest damage from human-caused wildfires

Protect economic or social interests

• Protection of recreation site facilities
• Enforcement of fire use and land use prohibitions

Improve health and safety

• Use of resource roads
• Protection of water sources and streams
• Integrity of resource roads

Natural Resource Officer Brochure (PDF)

Key functions and methods

Natural Resource Officers use a range of tools and actions to enforce B.C.’s resource management laws. They include:

• Educating the public and maintaining a presence in the field
• Completing compliance inspections:
  • Routine inspections, in response to complaints or incidents
  • Scheduled inspections (co-ordinated with Natural Resource Sector partners), in response to the ministry’s identified priorities
• Investigating alleged non-compliance with legislation, when enforcement action is being contemplated
• Taking enforcement actions. For more information, see enforcement actions.

Areas of enforcement

• Investigations of human-caused wildfires, safe use of campfires, industrial land clearing and debris burning (Wildfire Act)
• Designated heritage sites or heritage resources (Heritage Conservation Act)
• Unauthorized use of Crown land, illegal cabins, unauthorized foreshore structures such as wharfs, retaining walls and infill (Land Act)
• Water management and conservation (Water Sustainability Act)
• Damage to the environment caused by off-road vehicle use (Forest and Range Practices Act and Off-Road Vehicle Act)
• Livestock, hay use and Crown pastures (Range Act)
• Recreation sites and trails, forest use, theft from forests, reforestation, harvesting practices, resource roads (Forest and  Range Practices Act)
• Road and silviculture legacy obligations (Forest Practices Code of B.C. Act)
• Cutting and licensing of Crown timber, timber valuation, transportation monitoring, marking and scaling (Forest Act)

Designations, authority and legislation enforced by NROs

NROs are authorized to enforce a broad range of environmental and natural resource laws:

• Natural Resource Officer Authority Regulation
• Natural Resource Compliance Act

Some NROs have also been designated as Special Provincial Constables. Some officers have the authority to enforce provisions of the following legislation:

• Agriculture Land Commission Act
• Fisheries Act
• Fish Inspection Act
• Water Utility Act
• Water Protection Act

Becoming an NRO

To learn about the work NROs do and qualifications needed for the job, see Careers for Natural Resource Officers.