Author Description

This guidebook is provided to help managers, planners, and forestry field staff comply with the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and to set and achieve the management objectives for riparian management areas (RMAs) specified in operational plans. It first provides guidelines on classifying streams, wetlands, and lakes, and establishing RMA boundaries for those riparian zones. Each RMA consists of a riparian management zone and, where required by legislation, a reserve zone where constraints to forest practices are applied. The guidebook also describes provisions for modifying the width of the management zone or reserve zone. The guidebook then provides general and specific guidelines for forest practices within the RMA, fisheries-sensitive zones, and marine-sensitive zones, as well as guidelines for management and use of range in riparian areas.