Region Archives: Canada East

When thinking about a cemetery, the terms eco-friendly and an interactive app do not immediately come to mind. The cemetery of the Forest of the Second Life wants to change that. The cemetery was developed in collaboration with forest engineers from the Institut des Territoires du Québec in order to encourage the growth of new trees at a time when the well-being of forests are being jeopardized. “People will be able to bury their ashes under trees, an individual tree or family of trees,” said Forest of the Second Life executive manager Stephanie Tremblay. “We also have a section for pets. We do also have an option for people who would like to plant their roots now.” …Each deceased person will be geolocated in the forest, and at the foot of each tree, a virtual chest containing a bank of memories – including photos, 3D images, and videos – will be located.

Additional coverage in CBC News, by Sean Henry: A new forest-cemetery is opening in the Laurentians

NOVA SCOTIA — Dr. Ellen Whitman is a forest fire research scientist and works on fire ecology and fire remote sensing, and most of her research is focused on northern Canada, including in the NWT and the Yukon. Whitman grew up in the Annapolis Valley and did her master’s on fire research at Dalhousie University. …What does Nova Scotia need to think about to reduce the risk of wildfires? Certainly people in severe fire weather conditions need to be careful about their own actions and don’t be the person who’s unintentionally responsible for setting a fire. …Nova Scotia does have a lot of rural communities and wildland-urban interface communities and that is a challenge going forward, but there’s a lot of opportunities to adapt and create resilient communities. …Atlantic Canada benefits in many ways from having this mixed wood Acadian forests with a broadleaf [tree] component, which historically reduced risk.

A small museum near Timmins is restoring a logging boat from the 1920s that helped fuel the local forest industry.  The Connaught and District Pioneer Museum said restoring the boat is about preserving a piece of history and offering a new tourist attraction.  The roughly 100-year-old logging boat called The Alligator has been in better shape, but volunteers are chomping at the bit to restore it to its former glory.  “It’s our history,” said Rheal Dupuis of the Connaught and District Historical Society. “This boat was bought by Woollings in 1928 and was parked in 1957, I believe.”  Much of the wood has rotted, but the frame, original engine and the history remain. The boat would pull logs across the nearby lake to the local mill for peeling.

Residents who may be using area forests are being reminded that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry will be starting an aerial chemical herbicide spray August 1st. A total of 629 hectares have been identified for the 2023-2024 spray project for the Dryden Forest, these areas were seeded in the years between 2017 and 2022 with black and white spruce, along with lesser amounts of jack pine. The campaign is targeting trees which compete against those coniferous trees on harvest sites. Those competitors include poplar trees, herbaceous weeds, raspberries and alder. A spokesperson for the MNRF says stress on a seedling after planting can be intensified by growth of non-crop vegetation, especially during the first two years, which could result on decreased growth. …The herbicide needs to be applied before the deciduous tree species go dormant for the year, which given that requirement, most aerial spray programs will be completed by mid to late September.

The emerald ash borer hasn’t been in Sudbury, Ont., long, but the insect is already changing the local landscape. …Last year, Sudbury’s Science North had to cut down ash trees the insects killed, and now the city is also removing infected trees on public property. Jennifer Babin-Fenske, the city’s climate change co-ordinator and an entomologist, said it’s game over if emerald ash borers settle in an ash tree. “If it’s in the area, your ash trees are going to die,” she said. …Babin-Fenske said one way the insects spread to new areas is through firewood. That’s why it’s important for campers not to buy or cut firewood in one area, and use it somewhere else, she said. …Babin-Fenske said there are some insecticides that work on emerald ash borers, but they have to be injected in the trees, and before an infestation takes hold.

I wonder whether the whole Smokey Bear public awareness campaign – devised by the U.S. Forest Service, and also adopted in parts of Canada – is at its core misplaced. Yes, we should be careful to not light forest fires. But the campaign also taught us and our kids that all forest fires are bad. That is not true. In fact some argue that a century of forest-fire suppression in the U.S. and Canada has left our forests full of fuel (such as dead trees), making them extremely flammable. …Forest fires are not just a natural occurrence; they are necessary for regeneration of forests. So fire is okay? Yes and no. We must always fight to control fires that threaten our communities. …If we FireSmart our communities, allow some wildfire and use some prescribed burns, we will help our forests and make the woods a healthy home for Smokey Bear, and for us.

The future of forestry in northwestern Ontario is bright, green and growing, according to information presented to Fort Frances council by Mike Willick, president of Boundary Waters Forest Management Corporation. BWFMC is a board of industrial, municipal, Anishnaabeg and Metis interests which works collaboratively to manage the forests, and forestry road network. They work to determine where roads are built and where forests are cut, and by which facility, to maximize efficiency and sustainability. …According to Willick, BWFMC commissioned a study to explore the possibilities growing in our forests. What they found is a vast source of untapped potential – when taking the 10 year cutting rates into account, the Boundary Waters forest holds 600,000 cubic metres of wood per year in the form of biomass. There’s an additional 200,000 cubic metres of “opportunity wood”, in the form of roundwood, which is unsuitable for existing mills.

Marit Stiles, Leader of the Official Opposition NDP and NDP MPPs Lise Vaugeois (Thunder Bay – Superior North) and Sol Mamakwa (Kiiwetinoong) demanded support and resources for forest fire workers during a press conference today addressing the severe and urgent crisis as wildfire season rages on amidst a retention and recruitment crisis. “Forest fire crews have been doing incredibly difficult work this summer to keep all of us safe,” said Stiles. “But that work is made so much more difficult when this government is not respecting workers with honest wages and fair working conditions. Not only are crews struggling to recruit this year, but they’re also having trouble retaining experienced workers. That puts us in a dangerous position for next summer.” …This year, Ontario is short 50 forest fire crews. According to OPSEU/SEFPO records, there are 120-150 fewer fire rangers this year than there were in 2019.

Additional coverage in CBC News by Kris Ketonen: NDP calls for more support for northern Ontario forest fire fighters

Faye Johnson

Over her 40-year career in forestry, Faye Johnson never wanted, or asked, for any special treatment. Affirmative Action programs existed in Canada, starting in the early 1980s, but Johnson wanted no part of it. She was determined to demonstrate she could compete for a job on an equal footing against anyone. A registered professional forester, Johnson started on the bottom rung of the industry ladder as a tree planter and climbed her way into senior director roles in the Ontario government and the private sector, overseeing forest and silviculture operations, involved in policy development, business planning, international trade, Indigenous relations, and economic development. She runs a North Bay consulting firm and is the respected chair of the Temagami Forest Management Corp., a new provincial agency overseeing management of the 600,000-hectare Temagami Forest in northeastern Ontario.

TORONTO – With active forest fires burning across the province, Hydro One is reminding customers that live in nearby communities that the company may need to temporarily disconnect power if a fire poses an imminent threat to any nearby stations, towers or poles in order to protect the safety of nearby communities and minimize damage to the local electricity system. To support affected customers, Hydro One automatically waives all connection and delivery fees when power is disconnected due to forest fires. …Hydro One is taking actions to protect its employees and infrastructure to continue delivering safe, reliable power to communities at risk. …If a forest fire poses an imminent threat to any critical infrastructure, the company may consider taking additional actions such as installing sprinkler systems at key stations, wrapping critical poles in fire retardant mesh, along with creating fire breaks and clearing any additional nearby trees or brush.

Atik, the woodland caribou, is the most important element that has helped foster links between the Innu and the land. Unfortunately, the interior has been undergoing major transformations for several years now.  So much so that in the southern part of the Nitassinan of the Innu of Pessamit, on Québec’s North Shore, this age-old link with the land is being erased as logging continues to move inexorably northwards. As researchers, biologists (including one of Innu origin) and forestry engineers, we are at the interface of scientific and Indigenous knowledge. The forest environment is changing as a result of human activity. We are trying to gain a better understanding of how this is happening in order to guide future actions to preserve all the values that the forest represents, including Innu culture. 

A group of four concerned citizens from Timmins and Foleyet are demanding the Ontario government stop using chemical herbicides on the province’s forests. The campaign lead is Joel Theriault, a hunting and fishing guide and non-practising environmental lawyer. He first became concerned about herbicide use in the forests near his home when he became sick after eating bear. …“To my knowledge, there’s not one single glyphosate-based herbicide that you can spray on the field, send your cows out there, let them eat, kill the cows and send them to Walmart for human consumption. Not one, but that’s exactly what’s happening in a forestry context.” …The Canadian Forestry Service says glyphosate does not accumulate in animals, and that moose will return to a sprayed forest within two to three years once their preferred habitat returns.

MONTRÉAL — FPInnovations announces the completion of the baseline phase for its truck platooning tests. The baseline testing program was carried out thanks to a financial support of $576,000 from Société du Plan Nord and of $447,758 from Natural Resources Canada under the Forest Innovation Program. FPInnovations’ truck platooning project aims to accelerate the adoption of the off-highway, automated vehicle technology to support the sustainable development of Northern communities and to address the critical shortage of truck drivers. The chronic lack of drivers severely compromises many forestry and mining operations in Northern Québec. The baseline testing program involved exposing RRAI’s AutoDrive autonomous software system to a variety of road and environmental conditions typically encountered in Québec forest and mining operations. Analysis and reporting of the captured summer and winter test conditions were completed in March 2023. 

With no response from the government, Quebec’s forestry industry is again asking for help from the federal and Quebec governments to cope with the forest fires that disrupted its activities. After requests that went “unanswered”, groups made up of unions and industry representatives appealed directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault for immediate assistance at a press conference in Roberval on Wednesday. “Forestry workers, companies and contractors are still being left to deal with the consequences of the forest fires on their own,” said Annie Beaupré, General Manager of the Fédération québécoise des coopératives forestières. In particular, they are asking for help for seasonal workers. In Quebec, 3,400 workers hold seasonal jobs in the industry. Generally speaking, these workers manage to accumulate enough hours of work to qualify for employment insurance during the period of seasonal unemployment.