1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background

The Forest Resources Commission report, "The Future of Our Forests," released in April, 1991 was highly critical of the general status of resource inventories in British Columbia. The report suggested that existing inventories are not adequate to meet the changing needs of an expanding client base. These needs include inventory support for land and water allocation, native land claims negotiations, and resource management.

In response, a Provincial Forest Resources Inventory Committee (the name was subsequently changed to the Resource Inventory Committee - RIC) was established to review the status of current resource inventories and develop mechanisms for rectifying problems. As part of this process, the Committee established seven task forces to address different kinds of resource inventories including: Geology and Soils; Timber; Biodiversity; Wildlife Habitat and Livestock Range; Fisheries Habitat; Water and Watersheds; and Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

The Culture, Recreation and Tourism Task Force is intended to make recommendations to RIC pertaining to culture, recreation and tourism inventories both in the short and long term. The focus will emphasize the status of current inventories, the needs of present and future users, standards and procedures required, linkages and interfaces with other inventories, and other recommendations for future inventories, including data storage, interpretation and dissemination.

1.2 Objectives

The mandate of RIC is outlined in the following two objectives and six activities.

RIC Objectives

1. Determine what information is vital for effective land management, at what levels of detail, and for what purposes.
2. Define how this inventory information can most efficiently be acquired in a manner that minimizes duplication, promotes cooperative data collection, and encourages broad application and long term relevance.

RIC Activities

1. Determine the resource inventory information that is being or has been collected, by whom, to what standards, using what procedures, and at what costs.
2. Identify the information products that will be most needed by resource managers and associated inventory users.
3. Develop, where appropriate, common standards and procedures for the collection, storage, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of inventory data.
4. Test these standards and procedures in the field.
5. Encourage their application, including training and extension, in both government and private data collection programs.
6. Cost a staged completion of a coordinated multi-resource inventory of the forest land base over a ten year period of time.

The above activities will be carried out over the next three years in a staged fashion. The involvement of committees, task forces and working groups, natives and non-government organizations (NGO's), various levels of government and B.C. ministries is intended to ensure a broad representation and base of information, opinion, and data.

The Culture, Recreation and Tourism Task Force has the following three basic objectives:

1. To determine the culture, recreation and tourism inventory information that is being or has been collected, by whom, to what standards, using what procedures, and at what cost.
2. To identify the information products and associated inventory needs most needed by resource managers and decision makers.
3. To develop common standards and procedures for the collection, storage, analysis, interpretation, reporting, and dissemination of inventory data.

The first objective has been addressed in a companion report entitled "A Review of Existing Resource Inventories in British Columbia Dealing with Culture, Recreation and Tourism". It is summarized in Chapter 2 of this report. The second objective comprises the main focus of this report. The third objective will be addressed in subsequent work.

The specific Terms of Reference for the Culture, Recreation and Tourism Task Force are as follows:

Overall Goal:

To develop a multi-resource integrated inventory:

• to support, primarily, land and water use planning, resource management, and native land claims negotiations; and
• to meet public information needs.

Specific Objective:

To move towards design and implementation of a Culture, Recreation and Tourism inventory by specifically identifying what to inventory (and how).

Activities:

1. Determine the culture, recreation and tourism inventory information that is being or has been collected, by whom, to what standards, using what procedures, and at what costs:
• Review existing inventories and report on the following:

- Purpose
- Structure
- data collection
- public feedback
- data classification
- data output
- clients
- inventory uses
- relationship to other inventories
- quality and standards
- provincial coverage
- scale
- costs
- data accessibility and dissemination
- "user friendliness" of data
- problems, deficiencies, issues
- legislative mandates for collection of inventory
- other relevant criteria being used by other RIC task forces.

• Examples of existing inventories identified by the Terms of Reference include:

- Ministry of Forests
- Recreation Inventory
- Ministry of Tourism and Ministry Responsible for Culture
- Heritage Resource Inventory; Tourism Resource Inventory
- B.C. Parks
- Parks Values Inventory
- Canadian Parks Service
- Canada Land Inventory Recreation Capability

2. Identify the information products, and associated inventory needs most needed by resource managers/decision makers, educators/recreationalists and tourists, including:

- identify current and future clients of culture, recreation and tourism, inventory information
- identify client needs (purpose why collected)
- identify processes in which inventory information will be used
- identify technical standards and research needs
- identify staff and training needs
- identify appropriate technology

3. Analyze and compare the outcomes of I and 2 above, and make recommendations on the following:

- necessary adjustments to existing programs
- new inventory programs needed
- new inventory approaches
- new uses of inventory data
- integration and coordination with other inventories

4. Where appropriate, develop common standards and procedures for the collection, storage, analysis, interpretation, reporting, and dissemination of inventory data.
5. Submit a report on Task Force findings to RIC, by May 15, 1992.
6. Present the report at a RIC retreat May 27 and 28, 1992, to be held at Mesachie Like.

1.3 Scope

The topics of culture, recreation and tourism are incredibly broad in their meaning and scope. Within the RIC context, they form a distinct "catch-all" inventory grouping. They are distinctly different from the other six task force topics because they are not typically defined in physical terms (the way timber, soil, or geology would be). In fact, there is a distinct people-focus and/or market demand element which is unlike the other task force topics. Furthermore, there are distinct differences among the three topics of this Task Force which makes categorizing the issues difficult.

In any event, the following comments are meant to inform the reader about the scope of this report.

• The focus is mixed. The audience of this report is a mix of stakeholders which includes members of RIC, resource managers, and resource users. This infers an audience that is generally informed or knowledgeable about the topic. As such, the overall focus of the report is intended to be analytical, logical, and concise.
• The level of detail varies. The level of detail presented is intended to be sufficient to document the subject, while striving to be brief and concise.
• Users of the report will include government and non-government representatives. Government readers will likely be resource managers dealing with issues involving the three topics of culture, recreation and tourism. These agencies typically design inventory programs and manage the information. Non-government readers will tend to be from agencies that "use" resource based inventory information.
• The geographic focus is very broad. The original intent of this project was to deal solely with crown land. Subsequent re-focus has intended the results of this analysis to be relevant to the entire province, including private land.
• The inventory review covers all government jurisdictions. The research for this report covered inventory products and needs from federal departments, provincial ministries, and crown corporations, plus regional and local governments.

1.4 Definitions

The following definitions have been created to outline the scope of the topics covered in this report

Resource Inventory:

Any itemized list, map or report dealing generally with resource based features, areas, and values.

This definition includes a range of "inventories" from manual lists of categorized information, and data bases, to computer-based geographic information systems. These inventories involve more than raw data and require some descriptive classifications or parameters. The common feature is that they can be related to land use and/or management.

Tourism:

The "tourism industry" is the sum of all the businesses and amenities that directly provide goods, services, or experience to travelers.

Tourism "occurs" when people travel outside their usual place of residence for at least one night. It is noted that no universally accepted definition of tourism exists and there is no Standard Industrial Classification for tourism. Depending on the agency "defining" tourism, it may include business travel, it may include a distance-from-home requirement, or it may involve an overnight stay away from home. In place of a concise definition, tourism for the purposes of this inventory, relates to the activity of travelling, and it includes the businesses or resources that cater to travelers.

Outdoor Recreation:

The physical, cultural, or spiritual experiences associated with biophysical and cultural, resources, and both natural features or constructed amenities.

Outdoor recreation features are aspects of the landscape which provide the opportunity settings for outdoor recreation activities.

Culture:

The mix of characteristics that constitutes a society's way of life.

Cultural resources include aspects of the land considered important for continuation of a people's traditional way of life, or significant as evidence or remainder of their history. It also includes such "developed" cultural pursuits as performing arts, visual arts, museums, and film. In a more general sense, it also includes language, beliefs, customs, traditions, and heritage. (It is noted that archaeology is not included in this report as it is being addressed by the Geology and Soils Task Force.)

1.5 Methodology

This project has been conducted in three phases. The first phase was a cataloguing of existing culture, recreation and tourism inventories. The second phase involved collection of data from current and potential users of inventory information. The third phase involved analysis and review of these inventories and data, and the formulation of conclusions and recommendations.

The following steps were undertaken:

Catalogue of Inventories:

• Devised a list of inventory evaluation criteria to allow features of existing inventories to be recorded.
• Reviewed a variety of sources to access culture, recreation and tourism inventories.
• Compiled the analysis of 25 inventories into a draft report.
• Presented the draft report to the Culture, Recreation and Tourism Task Force for comments.
• Included another 13 inventories in the catalogue and revised the report.

Inventory Users Data Collection:

• Identified a number of users and potential users of inventories and categorized them according to their culture, recreation and tourism focus.
• The list included federal government departments, provincial government ministries, crown corporations, regional governments, consultants, universities, media, tourism industry associations/operators, resource industries, non-government organizations, and native organizations.
• Prepared a questionnaire dealing with the issues that needed to be addressed. This included questions dealing with existing inventories used, purpose, effectiveness, improvements, formats, level of detail, and future changes.
• A total of 83 persons were contacted. Fifty-five surveys were completed by telephone or returned by mail or fax.

Analysis and Review:

• The results of the Catalogue of Inventories were summarized and conclusions drawn from the results.
• The user questionnaires were categorized, summarized, and analyzed.
• Conclusions and recommendations were prepared and described in a draft report.
• The draft report was presented to the Culture, Recreation and Tourism Task Force for review and comments.
• Comments were incorporated into the final report presented to the Resource Inventory Committee.

1.6 Inventory Considerations

There are a number of features or principles that can be used to guide the inventory process. Generally, the Culture, Recreation and Tourism Task Force felt that the inventory should:

• be ownership free;
• have the capability to be decentralized;
• be tied in with the land use planning process and support the process's needs;
• facilitate good land use decisions;
• be standardized and comparable to the other task force inventories;
• be widely trusted and credible;
• be free of subjective interpretation;
• be developed with commonly accepted goals and through an effective consultative process;
• be easily understandable; and
• have "equal footing" with other inventories.

Furthermore, work done for the Timber Task Force (Some Characteristics of a Good Inventory, Kim Iles and Associates, December, 1991) was tabled for consideration by the Culture, Recreation and Tourism Task Force. This report is relevant because it is based on the experience of an extensive, province-wide resource inventory. It identifies the following inventory features or characteristics as desirable:

• keep it simple
• provide complete provincial coverage
• be responsive to user needs
• provide training to inventory users
• over-design the system to allow future needs to be incorporated
• strive for statistical accuracy
• create flexible categories
• allow for the recalculation of raw data
• store information in a manipulable database
• maintain quality control procedures
• be verifiable by outside agencies
• be compatible with other geographic information systems
• maintain historical/out-of-date information
• develop quick, responsive reporting capabilities.