Water Stewardship Information Sources
| Citation | Sechelt Indian Band. 2007. A strategic land use plan for the shishalh Nation. Sechelt Indian Band. |
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| Organization | Sechelt Indian Band |
| URL | http://www.shishalh.com/docuploads/forms-and-applications/A-Strategic-Land-Use-Plan-for-the-sh--sh--lh-Nation-1416417270-1.pdf |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | This Land Use Plan represents our best efforts to date to summarize the values found across our territory, and to describe how we would like to see terrestrial and inter-tidal (beach) resources as well as the land protected, managed and utilized now and into the future. We expect to review and refine this plan over time, as our knowledge and understanding of our land and the interrelationship among all living things improves. Over many years, we have seen our land and much of the resources within our territory developed without our consent. Areas that have great cultural and historical importance for our people have been impacted, and access to some areas that we have used for generations has been denied. Particularly in recent years, development pressures within our territory have increased, from activities such as: ƒ Land dispositions that result in permanent alienation of parts of our territory; ƒ Forestry activities, that continue throughout our territory in many areas of cultural and economic importance to our people; ƒ Fish farms, that have been located in the territory without any regional planning and that raise particular concerns for the health and the well-being of wild fish stocks and which impact marine conditions around the farm sites; ƒ Commercial backcountry tenures, that allocate to third parties rights and interests for the use of key areas within our territory; ƒ Residential development, that in recent years has dramatically increased in pace with local population growth at nearly 5% (approximately three times the average rate for BC as a whole) as the Sunshine Coast becomes a more desirable recreational area and a bedroom community for the Lower Mainland; ƒ Foreshore development, including the building of docks without approvals and log dumps that impact foreshore areas; ƒ Multiple applications for Independent Power Projects (IPPs) along key rivers and creeks and in high value watersheds; and, ƒ Proposals for industrial development, including large scale aggregate mining, in areas that are of special significance to the shíshálh Nation. As development pressures have increase, we are inundated with requests from various levels of Government to assess proposals for projects through the referral process. This approach puts the shíshálh Nation in a reactive position, and also places a significant burden on our technical staff as we attempt to respond meaningfully to every project on an individual basis. The referral process also fails to address fundamental questions regarding our rights and title and leaves our Nation without a meaningful role in planning or management decision-making. |
| Information Type | report |
| Regional Watershed | Howe Sound & Sunshine Coast |
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| Project status | complete |
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