Grade 11 - Land-Use Planning

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

describe sustainable development and its relationship to land use
describe forest land-use planning processes at the site-specific, regional, and province-wide levels
relate public involvement to land-use planning decisions

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Planning is one of the first steps required in making decisions affecting land use. Students examine the processes and issues involved in planning, including public consultation and consideration of sustainability, and how a dynamic land-use plan is developed at province-wide and site-specific levels.

Have the class develop a definition of sustainability . Then conduct a simulation activity that focusses on sustainable development and the many uses and values of the forest. Ask students to consider the views of various individuals and groups after a fictitious company in the Canadian forest industry proposes a major expansion. The simulation should explore reasons for and effects of land-use decisions made at personal, community, and provincial levels.
Invite participants in a local land-use planning process (e.g., local resource management planning participants) to discuss the steps for public involvement in forest land-use planning (e.g., at the management planning level, development planning level, silviculture prescription level). Students might ask questions such as:
- How are today's land-use planning processes different from past processes?
- Specifically, how are comments and suggestions addressed?
- What is the potential impact of sustainability on future land-use planning?
Students could focus on the involvement of both individuals and groups.
Invite students to examine a variety of newspaper advertisements that outline the process for community and individual involvement in land-use planning. Ask students to respond, individually or as a class, to a land-use plan and to suggest ways to implement this plan.
As a class, brainstorm factors affecting land-use planning (e.g., environmental, political, social). Then invite student groups to create "ideal" land-use plans for a specific region. Discuss the potential effects of each plan on the surrounding community.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Students' research reports, oral presentations, and participation in simulation activities that explore different land-use practices can provide a variety of assessment opportunities. While assessing students, focus on their ability to identify and articulate multiple levels of decision making and opportunities for input from various groups in the land-use planning process.

Invite a forester to talk to the class, and note the extent to which students:
- draw on or clarify their knowledge about current land-use policies
- hypothesize about the effects of policy changes
- ask questions related to sustainability and the complexity of land-use planning
Have students use print, non-print, and electronic sources to research the forest-use planning process. Look for evidence that students:
- explain how the planning process changes as it progresses from province-wide to site-specific planning
- give reasons why land-use decisions made at personal, community, and provincial levels may differ
- identify various points of view taken by different interest groups
Have students work in pairs or small groups to create games based on the forest-use planning process. Students could create game cards that require others to provide short answers to forest-use planning questions or terminology definitions. Alternatively, students could create game boards with graphics indicating favourable and hazardous forest-use practices and planning options. Observe students as they create and use the games. Collect the games and note the extent to which students:
- differentiate between significant and minor concepts (as indicated by the questions on their game cards)
- graphically represent what they think are favourable and hazardous forest-use planning options (as indicated by their game board graphics)

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

Print Materials

Ancient Rainforests at Risk
Forestopia: A Practical Guide to the New Forest Economy
Ground Truth Studies Teacher Handbook, British Columbia Edition
Seeing the Forest Among the Trees
Three Men and a Forester
Wildwood: A Forest for the Future, Second Edition

Video

The Boreal Forest I
The Boreal Forest II
Forest Stewardship... Measuring Our Performance
More Than Trees
Stepping Lightly
Vanishing Forests

CD-ROM

CORE: The Electronic Library, 1995

Revised: January 27, 1999

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