Abstract

The BC forest industry and government agencies have experienced a four fold increase in bureaucratic process (paper pushing) over the last five years. At the same time as the implementation of the Forest Practices Code, there has been parallel increase in the legal, political and social profile of First Nations status, culture, heritage and archaeological resources. How does a Forest Licensee operating on Crown land deal with this process? The evolving approach towards addressing First Nations' archaeological resources within forest management activities is reviewed. First Nations' concerns, multi-levels of governments, Codes, Acts, Regulations, policies, licenses and contracts provide the bureaucracy. How do the right people get involved so that the 'on-the-ground' archaeological resources are identified and protected? An effective and efficient approach towards getting archaeological assessments which can be incorporated into landscape-level forest development plans and block-specific prescriptions is required. Real people are involved in making it happen.