The Forest Protection Area dataset is comprised of all the polygons that represent the administrative areas established by Forest Protection, Forestry Division of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry concerned with the prevention and control of damage to forests from fire, insects, disease and other harmful agents.

This spatial data identifies breeding zones used by forest managers and forest genetic associations to manage provincial forest genetic assets. The data: * shows the boundaries of breeding zones * identifies the primary or target species within each zone Species are associated with certain breeding programs, seed orchards and progeny (descendant) testing installations.

The Fire Control Zone dataset is comprised of all the polygons that represent Fire Control Zones in Alberta. Fire Control Zone is legislated to show geographical areas established for the purposes of closure orders and fire control orders under the Alberta Forest and Prairie Protection Act.

The Wildlife Management Zone polygons are a representation of the zones as described in legislation. They are used for the management of wildlife in Saskatchewan.Wildlife Management Zones (WMZ) are used for the management of wildlife, mainly game species, in the Province of Saskatchewan. Hunting activities are governed and wildlife populations (inventories) are monitored using these zones. These assigned zone boundaries help address the wildlife management issues of the day and are subject to change as wildlife populations and management practices evolve. The last revision to the WMZ boundaries was March 27, 2014. This revision moves some boundaries to readily identifiable landmarks such as numbered highways, municipal roads or water bodies for ease of public use. Descriptions are written in a manner that better allows boundaries to follow highway or provincial forest boundary updates without ammending the regulation. These boundaries are described legally in the Wildlife Management Zones and Special Areas Boundaries Regulations, 1990 (shortened to WMZSABR for dataset naming). These regulations are in force under The Wildlife Act, 1998. Copies of these documents can be found at www.qp.gov.sk.ca. This spatial feature class is the polygon representation of the zones as described in the regulation. Although these digitized boundaries are intended to be as accurate as possible, the regulations supersede this data should discrepancies occur. The polygons you see here are constructed from the lines contained in the WMZ framework feature class, which is a clause by clause representation of the legal regulation. Regulation changes to the zones, when they occur, should be digitized in the framework first, and then constructed into polygons for this feature class. This maintains consistency, accuracy and serves as a quality control process for these legally designated areas.

The Forest Inventory Zone(s) (FIZ) were developed to provide a broadly based ecological classification of the forest land in British Columbia. FIZ closely follow the early biogeoclimatic zones developed by Dr. Krajina. The province of British Columbia is split into 12 FIZ zones.

Polygon features showing various zones of protection around drinking water system intakes/wellheads. A drinking water system is any domestic system servicing anything other than a single-family dwelling, as defined in the Drinking Water Protection Act. Zone of protection is a broad term that represents a wide variety of areas as they have been delineated in their corresponding report. The methods and processes used to delineate these zones vary based on several factors including, but not limited to, population, vulnerability, hydrologic/hydrogeologic parameters, etc. For the use of this dataset, the term Protection Zone means that protection measures should be considered and/or implemented in these areas due to the importance of these areas supplying drinking water to their water system users. Protection Zone does not mean that protection measures have been implemented in these areas, nor that protection measures are not required beyond the boundary of these areas. This is one of three Drinking Water Sources datasets (along with the DWS - Intakes/Wellheads points dataset, and DWS - Source Areas polygons dataset). Note: these polygons have unique Protection Zone IDs used to relate them to the Intakes/Wellhead points.

Fire management agreements divide land into 4 areas: * Crown Protection Area (CPA): The Crown is responsible for responding to all fires in the CPA * Municipal Protection Area (MPA): The municipality is responsible for responding in the MPA * Federal Protection Area (FPA): The federal government is responsible for responding in the FPA * Northern Fire Protection Area (NFPA): The local fire department (mostly in unorganized areas) is responsible for responding to all incidents and the suppression of fires in the NFPA

Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) subzone\variant\phase boundaries with percent protected, number of overlapping protected areas and other attributes added as a result of geoprocessing in the Protected Area System Overview (PASO) application. Protected area and park representation by BEC unit provides a small scale ecosystem classification context for natural resource planning processes such as; management plans, land use zoning, environmental risk assessment, landscape analysis, habitat supply, and management of high priority species. Biogeoclimatic subzones are the basic unit of the BEC system. Subzones are grouped into biogeoclimatic zones to create more generalized units, and subdivided into biogeoclimatic variants and phases to create more specific or climatically homogeneous units. For more information on the BEC system see: http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/becweb/. For important warnings about using this data for spatial analysis see the Data Quality section of the metadata

This dataset shows the boundaries of the province's six fire management zones that existed prior to 2014 in which most forest fires received the same type of response. These management zones were based on: * common forest and forest fire management objectives * land use * density of values at risk * fire load * forest ecology The 2014 Wildland Fire Management Strategy moved from a zone-based approach to one where each wildland fire is assessed and receives an appropriate response according to the circumstances and condition of the fire.

The Public Land Use Zone (PLUZ) dataset is comprised of all the polygons that represent Public Land Use Zones in Alberta. A Public Land Use Zone is an area of land to which legislative controls are applied to achieve particular land management objectives identified in a guiding land and resource plan. They can be used to protect areas containing sensitive resources such as wildlife and their habitats, vegetation, soils and watersheds as well as to separate or manage conflicting recreational activities. These areas have been designated as Public Land Use Zones, under the authority of Section 178 and 208 of the Public Lands Administration Regulation (PLAR) under the Public Lands Act. Public Land Use Zones were formerly known as Forest Land Use Zones (FLUZ) which were designated under the former Forest Recreation Regulation under the Forests Act. The Public Lands Administration Regulation came into effect on September 12, 2011. At this time, Forest Land Use Zones under the Forest Recreation Regulation were incorporated into the Public Lands Act and Public Lands Administration Regulation. As a result, Forest Land Use Zone became Public Land Use Zone.