Provincial government announces 45,000 hectares of protected lands in northeast B.C. for the next decade

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The provincial government announced significant land has been named as protected for the next decade in a new protection area in northeast B.C.

The government said approximately 45,000 hectares of crown land northeast of Fort St. John have been protected for 10 years in a press release, with the aim to “safeguard caribou habitat and boreal ecosystems in Treaty 8 territory.”

In what is being described as an interim measure, it is intended to safeguard the area’s “ecological and cultural values” while long-term planning and protection discussions continue.

The area – labelled the K’ih tsaaʔdze Protection Area – overlaps with Doig River First Nation’s (DRFN) K’ih tsaaʔdze Tribal Park, an area DRFN first dedicated in 2011 near the Alberta-B.C. border. 

According to the provincial government’s statement, the region is “culturally, spiritually and ecologically significant” to DRFN members and supports treaty rights like hunting, fishing and trapping.

The protection area is established under the Environment and Land Use Act (ELUA) and supported by a Forest Act-designated area. 

The ELUA designation will protect the area from “new land and resource dispositions and industrial activity,” while “allowing existing lawful activities to continue,” providing “no new disturbance of the land surface” will occur.

The agreement for protected land is deeply rooted in the Consensus Document, an agreement the province signed with Treaty 8 Nations in 2022, which they committed to work collaboratively with the Nations on land-use planning and cumulative effects management and identify areas for protection and enhanced management, and the new K’ih tsaaʔdze Protection Area will help advance reconciliation and those commitments.

This was after a 2021 B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found the cumulative effects of industrial development constituted a treaty infringement in northeastern British Columbia.

Forestry activities in the area will cease for at least four years, according to the release.

During the first half of 2026, DRFN engaged with local councils in the region to seek public input on the joint land-use plan.

K’ih tsaa? Dze (pronounced kih tsad zey) is a word in the Dane-zaa language meaning “ancient spruce.”