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Forest Stewardship Plans

Last updated on June 18, 2024

A forest stewardship plan (FSP) is a map-based, landscape-level plan of potential forest development activities that are intended to take place in the plan area. Forest agreement holders must prepare, and have approved by government, a forest stewardship plan before harvesting or road building activities can begin. 

The forest stewardship plan has a term of five years and may be renewed for additional terms.

Content Requirements

The B.C. government and forest licensees engage skilled resource professionals to prepare and review forest stewardship plans. These plans ensure that forest practice operations are consistent with B.C. government objectives and values.

The Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) regulates how all forest and range practices and resource-based activities are to be conducted on Crown land. Vigorous compliance efforts and the enforcement of the commitments made in the forest stewardship plans ensure a high-quality of forest management.

The Forest Planning and Practices Regulation (FPPR) outlines the content requirements of a forest stewardship plan. This includes the results and strategies an agreement holder must include in their forest stewardship plan for the B.C. government’s eleven resource values and all measures written to protect against invasive plants and to maintain natural range barriers.

Administrative Guides for Forest Stewardship Plans

Resource Values

Resource professionals are encouraged to create innovative approaches for balancing multiple resource values or address forest health concerns (such as diseases and bark beetle outbreaks).

These innovative approaches become the results and strategies in the forest stewardship plan which are specified for each of the eleven resource values.

District Manager Letters of Expectation

B.C.'s Chief Forester requested that B.C. government district managers prepare a letter outlining resource management challenges in their natural resource districts. These letters identify best forest management practices to follow and highlight resource value concerns that need special attention.

Forest licensees and forest professionals are asked to show consideration of this information within all levels of their forest management planning and practices.

Public Review & Comment

Forest stewardship plans must be made publicly available for review and comment. A licensee must advertise that the plan is available and allow at least 60 days for comments to be received. This process allows other tenure holders, professionals, communities, stakeholders, and the public to provide input on these plans. Forest stewardship plans must also be shared and discussed with affected First Nations as part of the licensee’s obligation to First Nations consultation.

The forest stewardship plan tracking system is a central electronic repository of spatially enabled forest stewardship plan documents.

Forest agreement holders are encouraged to engage with First Nations as early as possible in the planning stages to build relationships and for information sharing purposes that may support consultation processes.

Known and unknown archaeological sites in B.C. are protected. Managing impacts to archaeological resources is a legislated requirement in B.C.

Before planning activities on the land base, forest agreement holders can request a records check of potential or known protected archaeological site information.