Muskwa-Kechika Management Area

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. The original size of the M-KMA was 4450000 ha. However, in 2000, with the approval of the Mackenzie Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP), over 1900000 ha were added to the M-KMA for a total area of 6400000 ha—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.

Name and geography
The area is named after the Muskwa River and Muskwa Ranges (from the 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.

Parks and protected areas
(with area)
 * Dall River Old Growth Provincial Park 644 ha
 * Denetiah Provincial Park & Protected Area 97908 ha
 * Dune Za Keyih Provincial Park & Protected Area 347789 ha
 * Finlay-Russel Provincial Park & Protected Area 122795 ha
 * Graham-Laurier Provincial Park 99982 ha
 * Horneline Creek Provincial Park 298 ha
 * Kwadacha Wilderness Provincial Park 114444 ha
 * Liard River Corridor/West Provincial Parks & Protected Area 88898 ha
 * Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park 1082 ha
 * Muncho Lake Provincial Park 86079 ha
 * Northern Rocky Mountains Provincial Park & Protected Area 665709 ha
 * Ospika-Cones Ecological Reserve 1282 ha
 * Prophet River Hot Springs Provincial Park 185 ha
 * Redfern-Keily Provincial Park 80771 ha
 * Sikanni Chief River Ecological Reserve 2091 ha
 * Stone Mountain Provincial Park 25179 ha
 * Toad River Hotsprings Provincial Park 414 ha