Case studies

Management Objectives and Evaluation Criteria

A refined set of Park Management Objectives was developed to determine what matters in climate change adaptation planning in Mount Robson Provincial Park. The intent was to determine specific management objectives across ecosystem management zones. The process of arriving at the refined management objectives included spatial consideration of:

• The risks posed by landscape-level MPB and fire disturbance;
• Management constraints posed by
  1. adjacency issues (Jasper Park to the east and timber management areas to the west)
  2. recreation and visitor safety
  3. travel corridor aesthetics; and
• Biodiversity management objectives, including wildlife and specific seral representation goals.

A spatial wildfire hazard rating system and a spatial MPB hazard rating system already existed as part of Park Management Plan (BC Parks, 2001). The wildfire hazard rating system was developed to represent stand-level susceptibility to fire on a landscape level. The MPB hazard rating system had been developed for the Park using a modified version of the Shore and Safranyik (1992) susceptibility model. Key management considerations include:

• The significant and growing percentage of forests that are currently rated from moderate to extreme MPB hazard (MPB);
• The increasing degree of MPB incidence since 1998, moving from west to east through the corridor toward the Jasper Park boundary (MPB);
• The significant and growing percentage of forests that are rated with a moderate to high wildfire hazard, particularly in the lower elevation travel corridor (wildfire management);
• The desire to minimize the potential for major, uncontrollable wildfires that could impact Park values or escape Park boundaries (wildfire management);
• The long term maintenance of capable caribou habitat in old forests of the ESSF (wildlife management); and
• The long term maintenance of a suitable combination of structural stages and deciduous-coniferous forests in the Biodiversity Conservation Area (wildlife management).

The result of this assessment is a re-statement of zone specific management objectives that guide the type and extent of management actions to be considered. Table 1 presents a set of refined management objectives for each ecosystem management zone based on a preliminary assessment of forest disturbance hazards, overall Park objectives, and management constraints. These objectives largely dictate the degree of management action (or non-action) that is appropriate in each zone.

Table 1: Summary of Refined Management Objectives For Each Ecosystem Management Zone

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