Approximately 45,000 hectares of Crown land in northeastern British Columbia has been protected for the next 10 years to help safeguard ecologically and culturally significant land within Treaty 8 territory. The interim measure is intended to safeguard the area’s ecological and cultural values while long-term land-use planning and protection discussions continue. On Friday, July 10, 2026, the B.C. government established the K’ih t̲s̲aaʔd̲z̲e Protection Area under the Environment and Land Use Act (ELUA), supported by a Forest Act (Part 13) designated area. The protection area will help conserve caribou habitat and boreal ecosystems and encourage ecological restoration while supporting ongoing collaborative land-use planning with Doig River First Nation. The ELUA designation will protect the area from new land and resource dispositions and industrial activity while allowing existing lawful activities to continue, provided no new disturbance of the land surface occurs. Forestry activities will be restricted in the same area for four years.