The DCFS will manage the forests and lands in the DCF footprint with a long term (centuries) planning horizon, guided by the following principles and goals:

•  Provide opportunity for community input and control of the management and stewardship of the forest and range resources in the Dunster CF area,
•  Generate funds for creating and maintaining community infrastructure,
•  Engage in consultation and collaboration, and seek guidance and share information both within the Dunster community and at a wider scale during all community forest activities,
• Respect the limits of landscape and ecosystem function, as well as heritage and cultural sites, including First Nations use and claims,
• Ensure that plans and activities meet the requirements of approved site plans and provincial regulations. and where necessary, encourage plans and activities that restore biodiversity, natural composition and structure, and ecosystem connectivity, when considered on a landscape level,
• Manage the visual impact of development activities to meet Visual Quality Objectives and constraints throughout the Dunster Community Forest area,
• Diversify forest products and conserve forest resources within the constraints of the DCFS obligation to the province. Conserve and protect as much as pos-sible all forest values including timber, wildlife, water, air, spiritual, and recreation/tourism,
• Contribute to the diversification of the timber-based resource economy in the Robson Valley by reducing reliance solely on timber harvesting and broadening non-consumptive uses of the forest resource,
• Provide local employment in performing the ongoing operations of the DCF,
• Encourage the expansion of small-scale specialty mills and cottage industries to maximize the socio-economic benefit of wood harvested,
• Ensure sustainable management of the forests of the DCF
• Incorporate the principles of an ecosystem-based planning approach into all proposed activities to ensure adequate protection of forest values, and incorporate/consider all higher level plans as well as the Robson Valley Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP)
• Provide educational opportunities for residents, district schools, and post-secondary institutions in the local management of the forest land base, and
• Evaluate the success of all land, water, and forest use activities in meeting the above guidelines.