Crown Land Referrals - Environment and Conservation

Crown Land Referral Process

The Lands Division of the Department of Environment and Conservation is responsible for the orderly development and conservation of provincial lands for the continuous social and economic benefit of Newfoundland and Labrador. Crown lands are allocated and managed by the Lands Division as a public trust and an important part of this principle is ensuring equity and fairness in the allocation process. Also, Crown land must be allocated and managed for the benefit of not only present but future generations. Often a parcel of land is subject to multiple agency jurisdiction, such as, forestry, wildlife, mining, agriculture etc. To facilitate the allocation process, the Lands Division issues referrals to interested agencies. The Environmental and Land Use program reviews the Crown land referrals from a wildlife perspective. Referrals may also be sent to District Forestry and Wildlife offices for review.

Environmental and Land Use staff review the proposals from the perspective of maintaining the integrity of wildlife populations, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, rare flora and fauna and to maintain the health of our ecosystems. Crown land referrals include applications for; remote cottages, temporary work camps, commercial resource based cottages for activities such as; trapping, outfitting, adventure tourism, fishing, mining exploration etc., and other applications for land use.

Criteria that is considered during review of the applications are; proximity to Sensitive Wildlife Areas (Land Use Atlas), type of access and potential for disturbance to wildlife and damage to the terrain, proximity to nesting, wintering or other wildlife use areas, Alluvial grasslands sites (Land Use Atlas), Wildlife Reserves or proposed wildlife reserves, maintenance of hunting and non-consumptive wildlife related recreational opportunities for the general public, endangered and rare species protection and terrain due maintenance of biodiversity.