RSEA Old Forest 140

The Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (RSEA) Old Forest 140 (RSEA_OLD_FOREST_140_PY) is a value-added product derived from an unspecified vintage of the annually updated Forest Vegetation Composite Polygons and Rank1 Layer (VRI).

The Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (RSEA) Old Forest 140 (RSEA_OLD_FOREST_140_PY) or “old growth” forests are generally described as forests late in the successional cycle of an ecosystem. A hallmark of old forests is that they contain old trees, but so much more is important about them. These forests provide ecologically valuable or critical habitats for animal and plant species as well as unique conditions and processes that are important for the conservation of biodiversity. Functional old forests deliver ecosystem services valued by people, including food, water, fuel, medicines, timber, recreation and tourism opportunities. Old forests provide cultural and spiritual values important to First Nations.

Provincial policy for managing old forest has been based on the concept that the further from the natural distribution of old forest the higher the risk to biodiversity and ecological health. In the RSEA context, risk also relates to the ability of First Nations to exercise treaty rights on the landscape. Note that the RSEA Old Forest assessment reports on current condition based only on the amount of forest, not at the condition of forested ecosystems.

The RSEA Old Forest Assessment applied two age thresholds (> 140 years and > 250 years) to assess the amount and distribution of all old forests. For the purpose of implementation and this RSEA assessment, old forest and contiguous old forest can be considered everything that is 140 years and older, that is contiguous, defined as touching or adjacent polygons.

Data Properties

Attributes / Column Name

Field Alias

Data Type

Data Precision

Comments

OBJECTID

Object ID

Unique row number auto generated by database

SHAPE

Shape

Geometry (Polygon)

FIRST_BCLCS_LEVEL_4

Text

British Columbia Land Cover Classification Scheme Level 4

Coded Values:

TC = Treed - Coniferous

TB = Treed - Broadleaf

TM = Treed - Mixed

MAX_PROJ_AGE_1

Short

Projected Age for Leading Species

SHAPE.AREA

Double

Area auto calculated by database (m2)

SHAPE.LEN

Double

Polygon perimeter auto calculated by database (m)

Renewal Triggers and Service Levels

As Needed

References

1 Holt R.F, Myers D. “OLD FOREST CURRENT CONDITION: A CUMULATIVE EFFECTS ANALYSIS FOR THE NORTHEAST RSEA STUDY AREA – Final Report”. British Columbia’s Environmental Stewardship Initiative:Northeast Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (RSEA), 01 JUN. 2019, https://www.bc-er.ca/files/gis/RSEA_Old-Forest_June2019_Version1.0.pdf

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RSEA Old Forest 140Feature Layer
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Additional Info

Field	Value
Last Updated	March 24, 2026, 21:09 (UTC)
Created	March 24, 2026, 21:09 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title Title for the Dataset.	RSEA Old Forest 140
Description A description of the dataset.	The Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (RSEA) Old Forest 140 (RSEA_OLD_FOREST_140_PY) is a value-added product derived from an unspecified vintage of the annually updated Forest Vegetation Composite Polygons and Rank1 Layer (VRI). The Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (RSEA) Old Forest 140 (RSEA_OLD_FOREST_140_PY) or “old growth” forests are generally described as forests late in the successional cycle of an ecosystem. A hallmark of old forests is that they contain old trees, but so much more is important about them. These forests provide ecologically valuable or critical habitats for animal and plant species as well as unique conditions and processes that are important for the conservation of biodiversity. Functional old forests deliver ecosystem services valued by people, including food, water, fuel, medicines, timber, recreation and tourism opportunities. Old forests provide cultural and spiritual values important to First Nations. Provincial policy for managing old forest has been based on the concept that the further from the natural distribution of old forest the higher the risk to biodiversity and ecological health. In the RSEA context, risk also relates to the ability of First Nations to exercise treaty rights on the landscape. Note that the RSEA Old Forest assessment reports on current condition based only on the amount of forest, not at the condition of forested ecosystems. The RSEA Old Forest Assessment applied two age thresholds (> 140 years and > 250 years) to assess the amount and distribution of all old forests. For the purpose of implementation and this RSEA assessment, old forest and contiguous old forest can be considered everything that is 140 years and older, that is contiguous, defined as touching or adjacent polygons. Data Properties Attributes / Column Name Field Alias Data Type Data Precision Comments OBJECTID Object ID Object ID Unique row number auto generated by database SHAPE Shape Geometry (Polygon) FIRST_BCLCS_LEVEL_4 FIRST_BCLCS_LEVEL_4 Text 2 British Columbia Land Cover Classification Scheme Level 4 Coded Values: TC = Treed - Coniferous TB = Treed - Broadleaf TM = Treed - Mixed MAX_PROJ_AGE_1 MAX_PROJ_AGE_1 Short Projected Age for Leading Species SHAPE.AREA Double Area auto calculated by database (m2) SHAPE.LEN Double Polygon perimeter auto calculated by database (m) Renewal Triggers and Service Levels As Needed References 1 Holt R.F, Myers D. “OLD FOREST CURRENT CONDITION: A CUMULATIVE EFFECTS ANALYSIS FOR THE NORTHEAST RSEA STUDY AREA – Final Report”. British Columbia’s Environmental Stewardship Initiative:Northeast Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (RSEA), 01 JUN. 2019, https://www.bc-er.ca/files/gis/RSEA_Old-Forest_June2019_Version1.0.pdf
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	BCER BRFN Agreement OD_Projects Old Forest RSEA RSEA_OLD_FOREST_140_PY
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.	0.09
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2023-08-23
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).	public
License License used to access the dataset.	This data is for representation purposes only. The Regulator provides this data "as is" with the understanding that it is not guaranteed to be accurate, correct or complete and conclusions drawn from such information are the responsibility of the user. It carries no guarantee of any kind, express or implied.The source data received from the contractor dated 2020-12-16 were extensively reviewed by GeoBC Geospatial Services and the BC-ER GIS team, through multiple platforms (FME, ArcGIS 10.8, ArcGIS Pro, Q) and concluded that these source files are corrupt beyond restoration. The contractor also supplied KMZ files; the BC-ER was able to convert 307 tiled KMZ files to reverse engineer into a Geodatabase, this was then also converted to shapefile format which was published on 2023-08-22. The considerations in this data manipulation are that there will be slight area and location variations when converting from a geographic coordinate system (globe) to a projected coordinate system (flat) - (GCS_North_American_1983 to NAD_1983_BC_Environment_Albers). The contractor provided the original shapefiles on 2023-08-28 that were verified to be valid and were used to update the originally published data on 2023-08-29.The team was also unable to confirm methods and input datasets; the assumption is that the VRI used is 2016 vintage and did not include TFL (Tree Farm License) information, which could impact Old Forest calculations. This data should be considered landscape level and not site specific.Please review the BCER Open Data License for complete details.
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://data-bc-er.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/5fdf1562f3ce428d9bde5f48871197cc
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	BC_Energy_Regulator
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.
Author Author of the dataset.	BC_Energy_Regulator
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.	2023-10-25

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.	5fdf1562f3ce428d9bde5f48871197cc
Language Language(s) of the dataset	English
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.	https://data-bc-er.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/5fdf1562f3ce428d9bde5f48871197cc
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.	169016
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.	9
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.	1521144
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

RSEA Old Forest 140

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

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