Historic Canoe Routes - Our FMP Recommendations

Recommendations for planning within the Ogoki Forest for 2008- 2018 Canoe Route Preservation and Protection

Core Recommendations: The existence of heritage canoe routes is respected and valued by the community and permanently entrenched within the Forest Management Planning process from this point forward. Canoe routes must be preserved. The natural remote environment along these routes must be given the highest priority and any impacts resulting from forestry operations must be immediately addressed to ensure these routes are returned to their previous state.

2008-2018 FMP recommendations

1. Eliminate any kind of shoreline buffer zone reference that references plant growth. All buffer zones must reference merchantable strands of timber.

2. Give primary consideration to “viewscape”. Predicate all decisions that involve clear cuts within shoreline buffer zones with primary consideration given to the "viewscape".

3. Identify the Marshall Lake Canoe Route as an Enhanced Management Area (EMA) as per Approved Land Use Strategies set out by the Ministry (Section 7.3.2).

4. Update and enter all Historic Canoe Routes in the Natural Resource Values Information System (NRVIS) database and agree to publish these in all future forest management planning maps. Commit the necessary Ministry resources required for the ground-truthing of all Historic Canoe Routes contained in the NRVIS database

Areas of Concern required for the protection of all Historic Canoe Routes in the Ogoki Forest:

Canoe routes
1. Enforce a 200 meter cutting boundary around all water bodies on all NRVIS established canoe routes.

Primary and Branch Roads
2. All primary and branch road must be kept away from canoe routes at a minimum of 1,000m

3. In the event the road cannot be kept away for the aforementioned distance, it must be effectively barred from public access with gates and removal of bridges once the operations are complete.

Operational Roads
4. All operational roads are kept away from canoe routes a minimum of 300m. If wood needs to be retrieved from the resulting reserve, that distance is sufficient for skidding operations that will have minimal impact on the forest floor.
5. After the operation is complete, bridges must be removed, the ground be scarified and the area replanted.

Portages
6. Leave a 200 meter uncut reserve corridors on both sides of established portages. After operations are completed, the portage must be checked to ensure it is left in a cleared state.
7. If a road crosses a portage:
a. no extraction of gravel within reserve
b. roads must cross portages at a right angle

Camp sites
8. All campsites should be entered in NRVIS as a 300 band along the shore to prevent pin-point access by land from the nearest road
9. All campsites must be provided with 100m reserve