{"id":535,"date":"2023-04-17T21:48:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T01:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/landuseplanninginbc\/chapter\/__unknown__\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:04:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:04:52","slug":"crown_bulkley_valley","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/landuseplanninginbc\/chapter\/crown_bulkley_valley\/","title":{"raw":"Case. Crown Lands in the Bulkley Valley","rendered":"Case. Crown Lands in the Bulkley Valley"},"content":{"raw":" \r\n
\r\n

Learning Objectives<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe Bulkley Valley case introduces students to unique challenges of rural planning where Crown lands are highly valued for both their natural resources and recreational amenities.\u00a0 The Bulkley Valley has been shaped through three eras of provincial resource policy.\u00a0 From a land policy perspective, one outcome is a landscape of overlapping jurisdictions with existing and potential conflicts.\u00a0 The case has specific regard for what is known as \"interface\" planning, which occurs in Crown lands immediately adjacent to townsites.\u00a0 These interface areas serve multiple interests and multiple uses arising from natural resource development, rural residential, recreational access, and Indigenous rights and title.\u00a0 The Bulkley Valley is located within the traditional territory of the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en.\u00a0 Learners are encouraged to discuss ways in which rural land use planning can be improved.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n
\r\n

Unceded traditional territory of the <\/strong>Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n
Th<\/span>is case describes places and activities <\/span>on the unceded <\/span>lands<\/span> of the <\/span>Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en<\/span> Nation<\/span>.\u00a0 The <\/span>Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en speak <\/span>Witsuwit\u02bcen<\/span> and are of <\/span>Dakelh<\/span> ancestry<\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n
\r\n

Over<\/span> one hundred years ago, in 1913, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company announced it would be locating an important divisional point along its transcontinental railway in a swampy townsite colloquially known as Squatterville<\/span> (Figure 1)<\/span>.[footnote]Shervill, R L (1981). Smithers, From Swamp to Village<\/em>, Smithers, BC: Town of Smithers, p. 19.[\/footnote]<\/span>\u00a0 After just one year, the surveyed site was transformed into a bustling town, complete with medical, educational, and financial services, and numerous business establishments.\u00a0 The government, private land companies, and residents promoted the area vigorously, as demonstrated by the popular slogan, \u201c5,000 population by 1915.\u201d\u00a0 While the village managed to attract only 700 residents by incorporation in 1921, by most accounts the town was flourishing.[footnote]Shervill (1981), p. 25.[\/footnote]<\/span>\u00a0 Squatterville would eventually become the idyllic mountain town known as Smithers<\/span>, located in the Bulkley Valley<\/span> of the western central interior of British Columbia<\/span> (Map 1)<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

\r\n

Facts and figures\r\n<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n

The Bulkley Valley is the heart of the Hudson Bay Mountain Ranges.\u00a0 The Bulkley Valley is divided between the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako and Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, and is home to several rural settlements.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/td>\r\nName<\/strong><\/td>\r\nPopulation<\/strong><\/td>\r\n% Change (2016-21)<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>\r\nTown of Smithers<\/td>\r\n5,378<\/td>\r\n-0.4<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>\r\nVillage of Telkwa<\/td>\r\n1,474<\/td>\r\n11.1<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>\r\nVillage of Hazelton<\/td>\r\n257<\/td>\r\n-17.9<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>\r\nDistrict of New Hazelton<\/td>\r\n602<\/td>\r\n3.8<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>\r\nDistrict of Houston<\/td>\r\n3,052<\/td>\r\n2.0<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

Many of the Valley\u2019s 16,000 inhabitants are located outside incorporated areas.<\/p>\r\n

Source: Canada Census 2021<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

\r\n

Figure 1.\u00a0 Early settler development, Smithers, BC, 1915
<\/strong>\"Smithers<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Map 1.\u00a0 Bulkley Valley, British Columbia.<\/p>\r\n\"Bulkley\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n\r\n \r\n

The expansion of the railway through the Bulkley Valley was part of British Columbia\u2019s first era of resource policy that aimed to develop the resources of Northern BC\u2019s Crown lands.\u00a0 Smithers and the rest of the Bulkley Valley eventually developed through three eras of provincial resource policy, each of which is described as part of this case.\u00a0 After discussing the economic development of the region\u2019s natural resources, this case highlights planning initiatives undertaken as responses to its historical pattern of resource development.\u00a0 These initiatives include localised resource planning, planning for local economic development, access planning, and bioregional planning.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Traditional Territory of the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en<\/strong>[footnote]The information about the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en peoples is drawn from the Office of the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en<\/a>[\/footnote]<\/h2>\r\n

The Town of Smithers was built on lands within the unceded traditional territory of the Wet\u02bcsuwet\u02bcen (<\/span>yintah<\/em>).\u00a0 Map 2 shows the traditional territory of the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en and areas of each clan. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The peoples of the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en are the original inhabitants of the Bulkley Valley.\u00a0 Wet\u02bcsuwet\u02bcen means \"people of the <\/span>Wa Dzun Kwuh<\/em> River\u201d (Morris and Bulkley rivers).\u00a0 They have occupied 22,000 km<\/span>2 <\/sup>of traditional territory in north<\/span> central<\/span> interior<\/span> BC since time immemorial.\u00a0 First contact with European fur traders is estimated to have occurred sometime in the early nineteenth century.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en employ a hereditary governance system to guide land management on their traditional territories.\u00a0 This traditional governance system is based on the following five clans, which comprise thirteen house groups:<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n