The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area (M-K or M-KMA) is a provincially-run tract of land in the far north of British Columbia. It has an advisory board that counsels the government on land-use decisions. Established by provincial government legislation in 1998, the area is meant to be preserved as a wild area, but development is not outright forbidden; the land is divided into different zones, with varying levels of protection, although the whole area is to be used according to an overall plan. The original concept called for 25% of the land to be turned into provincial parks, 60% to become "special management zones" (where limited mining and oil/gas drilling would be permitted), and 15% to become "special wild land zones", where logging would be prohibited.[1] The original size of the M-KMA was . However, in 2000, with the approval of the Mackenzie Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP), over were added to the M-KMA for a total area of —an area slightly smaller than the US state of Maine, or the entire island of Ireland, or seven times the size of Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming.[2] [3] [4]
The area is named after the Muskwa River and Muskwa Ranges (from the Cree: maskwa, "bear") and the Kechika River and Kechika Ranges (Kechika means "long inclining river"). The area include the Northern Rocky Mountains to the north of Lake Williston and the Rocky Mountain Foothills north of the Peace River and much of the southeastern Cassiar Mountains and a small portion of the northeastern Omineca Mountains. With the southern Selwyn and Mackenzie Mountains north of the Liard River, the area defines the Boreal Cordillera Ecozone.
(with area)[5]