Provincially run tract of land in British Columbia, Canada
The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area (M-K or M-KMA) is a provincially run tract of land in the far north of British Columbia. It has an advisory board that advises the government on land-use decisions. Established by provincial government legislation in 1998, the area is meant to be preserved as a wild area, but development is not forbidden. The land is divided into different zones, with varying levels of protection, although the whole area is supposed to be used according to an overall plan. The original plan called for 25% of the land to be turned into provincial parks, 60% to become "special management zones" where mining and oil and gas drilling was to be allowed, and 15% to become "special wildland zones" where logging is prohibited.[1] The original size of the M-KMA was 4,450,000 hectares (11,000,000 acres) however in 2000 with the approval of the Mackenzie Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) over 1,900,000 hectares (4,700,000 acres) were added to the M-KMA creating a total area of 6,400,000 hectares (16,000,000 acres), which is approximately the size of the US state of Maine, or the island of Ireland, or seven times the size of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.[2][3][4]
The area is named after the Muskwa River and Muskwa Ranges (from the Cree: maskwa, "bear") and the Kechika River and Kechika Ranges (Kechika means "long inclining river"). The area include the Northern Rocky Mountains to the north of Lake Williston and the Rocky Mountain Foothills north of the Peace River and much of the southeastern Cassiar Mountains and a small portion of the northeastern Omineca Mountains. With the southern Selwyn and Mackenzie Mountains north of the Liard River, the area defines the Boreal Cordillera Ecozone.
