Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Prepared by:

• Main Authors: Forest Management Branch, Forcorp Solutions Inc
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Northwest Territories; Athabasca River; Birch Hills; Lake Athabasca
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.395.9690; http://srd.alberta.ca/LandsForests/ForestManagement/ForestManagementPlanning/documents/RegForLandAssess-LowerAtha-Jun12-2013.pdf

The Lower Athabasca Region is one of the seven land-use regions defined in Alberta’s Land-use Framework. Spanning the entire east side of the Province, from the Cold Lake north to the Northwest Territories border, it includes the lower portion of the Athabasca River and Lake Athabasca. The Region is known primarily for the development of oil sands deposits. There is only one Forest Management Agreement holder in the Region, but there are other smaller forestry operations. Conventional well sites and pipelines are abundant. There is a small agricultural presence in the extreme southern portion of the Region. In total, parks and protected areas cover 7 % of the Region. The most prevalent protected areas are Wildland Parks which are distributed across the central and northern parts of the Region. The Region also contains a variety of Provincial Parks, Provincial Recreation Areas, Natural Areas and Ecological Reserves. The topography of the Region is mostly gradual, although there are pockets of steep-sided river valleys. The Birch Hills provide the highest elevations in the Region. Forests are mostly in the immature to mature stages of seral stage development, with 34 % of the forested area classified as immature or mature. In addition, the age class distribution indicates that 20% of the Region’s forests are in age classes 70 to 100. The forest is threatened by natural populations of several pests. Historically, forest tent caterpillar has been the most destructive. Mountain pine beetle has not yet been observed in the Region.