The High Conservation Value Forest Assessment (HCVF)

Principle 9 of the National Boreal Standard requires an assessment to determine the presence of attributes consistent with High Conservation Value Forests (HCVF). The HCVF concept focuses on the environmental, social, and cultural values that make a forest area outstandingly significant, and the management strategies to ‘maintain or enhance’ those values. The key to the assessment is the identification of High Conservation Values.

High Conservation Value Forests contain 1 or more of the following attributes:
• Forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant :
- Concentrations of biodiversity values (e.g., endemism, endangered species, refugia)
- Large landscape level forests, contained within, or containing the
management unit, where viable populations of most (if not all) naturally occurring species exist in natural patterns of distribution and abundance.

• Forest areas that are in or contain rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems.

• Forest areas that provide basic services of nature in critical situations
(e.g. watershed protection, erosion control).

• Forest areas fundamental to meeting basic needs of local communities
(e.g. subsistence, health) and/or critical to local communities’ traditional cultural identity (areas of cultural, ecological, economic or religious significance identified in cooperation with such local communities).

The following guidance documents will be used to complete the assessment:
• Boreal Standard (2004)- Appendix 5 : HCVF National Framework
• WWF Canada (2005) HCVF Support Document

The HCVF National Framework document organizes the HCVF definition into a table format with 6 Categories and 19 Key Questions. Each Key Question has Definitive and Guidance Questions used to channel identified values through the Assessment, so that HCVF attributes can be revealed and to provide an opportunity to evaluate thresholds for HCVF designation.

Open Houses

Open houses were held in Bragg Creek on February 3rd, 2011 and in Cochrane on February 9th, 2011 with the intent to introduce the HCVF Assessment Framework and to provide information on work completed to date.

The focus for the evening sessions was the identification of values. Stakeholders and the public at large were asked to comment and bring forward critical values associated with the FMA and B9 Quota areas. Identified values will be evaluated within the context of the Assessment Framework.

Please refer to the attached links for the introductory Power Point presentations and the Poster Boards presented at the Open House. Please forward your comments to SLS by fax or email by March 15th, 2011.
email: woodlands@spraylakesawmills.com
Fax: 403-932-6675

HCVF Report - Version 1.0

The first version of the HCVF Assessment Report is now available to the general public and is posted on the link in the left menu.  An email announcement indicating the release of the report has gone out to the SLS Stakeholder list.  Interested parties and the public at large are invited to review and comment on the HCVF values identified, as well as the associated management strategies designed to maintain or enhance those values.

SLS thanks you for your participation.