Region Archives: Canada East

Scott Atkinson

A new $30 million province-wide fire grant is going to help Timmins firefighters stay protected from hazardous carcinogens when fighting wildland fires, their deputy chief says. Timmins will be receiving $49,382 from the province through the office of Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, who oversees the office of the fire marshal. Local Deputy Fire Chief Scott Atkinson told the Daily Press those funds will be used to purchase 156 wildland fire jumpsuits. “The cancer-preventative measure we’ve put forward for that would be coveralls for almost every firefighter in the city,” Atkinson said. The grant applies to municipal firefighters, but the Timmins Fire Department is often called upon to fight grass fires and other wildland fires within the Municipal Protection Area of the city. “We’re in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. They’re the experts on forest fires, but we often work together,” said Atkinson.

Kevin Holland, MPP for Thunder Bay-Atikokan, and associate minister of forestry in Doug Ford’s Conservative government, says healthy communities make a stronger economy and one can’t exist without the other. …“Forestry has been the cornerstone of our economy for generations,” he said. “While we see mining ramping up — and we’re going to see investments coming into Thunder Bay, particularly around processing — we have to continue to make sure that we’re not losing track of forestry.” In the role of associate forestry minister, Holland says it’s a “real priority for him. “We’re developing new strategies to help the forestry industry when the pulp market starts dropping off so it’s not volatile for the forestry sector,” he said. “We can do that by bringing on new value-added businesses associated with forestry to use up our biomass and our forest and mill residuals so that we don’t experience these dips in the system.”

Heather Laiskonis

Prince Edward Island is becoming greener once more. Recently, the provincial government launched the P.E.I. 2 Billion Trees program to help restore nature, create healthy forest ecosystems and increase carbon capture across the Island. Across the country, the federal government has set the goal of planting two billion trees in the next 10 years. Heather Laiskonis, executive director of the P.E.I. Watershed Alliance, which administers small landowner applicants of the provincial tree planting initiative, explained how it works in an interview with The Guardian. She said the watershed alliance group administers 2.5 acres or smaller sites. “The province recognizes the benefit of having the watershed groups and having those relationships with landowners,” Laiskonis said. For the next seven years, P.E.I. Watershed Alliance will plant approximately more than 100,000 trees each year. …red maple, white pine, yellow birch, white spruce, white birch, and eastern hemlock the tree-planting program, Laiskonis said.

Quebec’s boreal forest — twice the size of France — is a vast expanse of wilderness rich in biodiversity that can lock up huge amounts of climate-warming carbon dioxide. It is also an economic driver for dozens of small communities. …But Indigenous leaders and environmental groups worry Quebec’s planned reforms would give logging companies too much power over what areas are allowed to be cut. …”Quebec has to be transparent about what their real intentions are,” Ghislain Picard, the chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, told Quebec AM. …Last week, the environmental group SNAP Quebec called for an independent investigation into the ties between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests and the industry….Earlier this year, a study examining nearly a half-century of logging in Quebec and Ontario warned that logging practices have left forests in the two provinces severely depleted, putting caribou at risk.

Up until a month ago, Cat Lake First Nation’s brush with the forestry industry in northwestern Ontario had been nothing more than some seasonal tree planting jobs, said Chief Russell Wesley. When Domtar ran the Dryden pulp mill, Wesley said locals did find employment through independent planting contractors, but nothing that created long-lasting sustainable jobs for its members. Cat Lake’s location, 180 kilometres northwest of Sioux Lookout, has had something to do with it. With only a seasonal access road, the fly-in community is too far north to be involved in the extraction of fibre. The community leadership now pins its hopes that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed last month with PRT Growing Services is their entry point into the region’s forestry industry. …Down the road, Cat Lake would like to duplicate the nursery operation that the B.C. company runs in Dryden by having one established in their own community at some point. 

Lanying Wang

…To determine a forest’s capacity for carbon sequestration, it is important to inventory and monitor forested areas regularly. Tree species classification is a vital component of forest management and can assist with calculating carbon sequestration potential.  In-person monitoring of forests can be difficult, especially in remote locations or large areas. Remote sensing techniques have been proven effective at assisting with forest management, notably LiDAR. …When LiDAR data is collected over a large area with an aircraft operating at a high elevation, the density of the point cloud can be sparse. These datasets can be difficult to conduct accurate individual tree-level species classification. Lanying Wang, a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management, is combining remotely sensed data and deep learning (DL) models to improve data accuracy and applicability.   

Two years after post-tropical storm Fiona demolished thousands of trees on Prince Edward Island, residents on the North Shore worry that the tattered debris still sitting in the forests could be a massive fire hazard. On Thursday afternoon, about 35 people gathered to discuss wildfire prevention, preparedness and mitigation. Mike Montigny, the manager of field services for the provincial Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action and officials with other groups including Parks Canada, the Emergency Measures Organization and local fire departments were at the meeting to give residents a chance to voice their concerns and ask about the Island’s wildfire plan. People wanted to know how long it would take a crew to respond to a fire. They wondered if fire departments on the Island have the proper training to fight a wildfire. What will crews use as a water source? Will more forest debris be cleaned up?

WENDAKE, Quebec  – The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) must once again denounce the irreverent attitude of the ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts (MRNF) towards First Nations in its approach to “modernizing” Quebec’s forestry regime. The meeting between the MRNF and First Nations on November 29 was completely disconcerting and it is an affront to First Nations and their rights. The haste with which the MRNF presented its priorities and orientations—despite their importance and direct impact on First Nations rights and ways of life—is unacceptable.  …The MRNF’s general approach to this reform seems based on satisfying the needs of the forest industry. …Faced with this situation, if the Minister does not make a major shift in the changes to be made to the forestry regime, First Nations will mobilize and put in place the necessary means to defend them and impose the respect they deserve.

Westwind Forest Stewardship Inc. won a prestigious North America-wide Leadership Award from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for its commitment to responsible forest management, advocacy and conservation leadership in the French-Severn Forest, near Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada. “In 2002, we were the first forest company in Ontario with publicly managed Crown lands to earn FSC certification. Since then, our dedication to environmental stewardship, responsible management, and building strong relationships with our entire community including Indigenous groups is unwavering,” shared Westwind Board Chair Rob Keen (RFP). At almost 1.3 million acres, the French-Severn forest rests on the Canadian Shield stretching from Algonquin Park to Georgian Bay, and from the Severn River north to the French River. Sugar maple and white wine dominate the landscape which is also home to the greatest number of turtle and snake species in the Ontario, each with habitat protection requirements found in the FSC standard.

University of New Brunswick forestry professor Anthony Taylor began a research project to examine what was killing balsam fir trees favoured by many Canadians to decorate their homes at Christmas. …in a paper recently published in the journal “Frontiers in Forests and Global Change,” Taylor and his co-authors identify the cause of the die-off in western New Brunswick and eastern Maine as drought and high temperatures brought on by climate change. “Identifying the broad scale climate anomalies, such as a drought, associated with the reported sudden balsam fir mortality in 2018 could prove useful to determine the likelihood of future mortality in response to climate change,” the study says. Taylor said he was shocked by “that much” death of balsam firs. …Taylor said heat and drought have weakened balsam firs, making them more vulnerable to pests and diseases that they would otherwise be able to defend against. 

Pud and Kerry Johnston

This weekend is one of the busiest of the year for Christmas tree farms all over the region as the holidays approach and people start looking for a fresh trees. At Johnston Brothers Tree Farm, located about 71 kilometres south of Ottawa, it’s no sweat for founder Pud Johnston. Johnston is 99-years-old and it’s his 72nd season selling Christmas trees. Johnston started the business in 1952 with his brother Eric and they worked alongside each other until he passed away in 2009. Johnston’s son Kerry is now the main operator of the farm but he is still engaged every day… “I think it’s a healthy activity,” Johnston said. “I think it’s provided lots of exercise and kept me fit and kept me young, and I wouldn’t be 99-years-old now if I hadn’t been Christmas tree farming.” …for Kerry, it’s all he’s known his whole life, cutting his first tree when he was about 8-years-old.