Region Archives: Canada East

Gary Saunders

Last June, two decades retired from what was Lands & Forests as an extension forester, I learned from a colleague that the Middle Musquodoboit Forest Education Complex was being shut down. When I asked why—there was nothing in the papers about it. …Why was I concerned? Because I happened to know what the complex meant to the thousands of Nova Scotia students, teachers and the general public who benefited from it. …In a province where nearly three-fourths of its woodland is privately owned, no government can manage by decree, the way they can on Crown lands. If they try, the land-owner might well tell them to “Shove it!” And the general public will back them. Instead, in a province still three-quarters forested, good long-term forest management must rely on well-informed landowners backed by a well-informed public. …Axing the complex further undermined public forestry education. 

The western chorus frog could prove to be a large obstacle to Premier Doug Ford’s plans for building Highway 413. The chorus frog … is listed as threatened on Canada’s official registry of species at risk. Consultants working for Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation have identified the frog along the 59-kilometre preferred route of the proposed Highway 413, across the northwestern fringes of the Greater Toronto Area. And while the frogs’ presence along the route may not necessarily stop the project altogether, it could force the province to change the proposed highway’s route  to preserve habitat. …The western chorus frog typically breeds in what are known as vernal pools: temporary ponds that form in early spring and dry up three to four months later, says David Seburn, a wildlife biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Federation. “They avoid ponds where there are fish that can eat their eggs and their tadpoles,” said Seburn in an interview.

Knowing more about the forest sector in PEI will help government shape policies and programs that support the Island forests. Forests, Fish and Wildlife staff will be meeting with local forestry companies to collect information on the impact of the sector throughout the province. PEI’s forest sector includes a range of businesses from tree planting, forest management, and wood harvesting to trucking, sawmilling, and firewood production, among others. Through these two-way conversations, government will learn more about equipment, employment, challenges and ways to help support the industry and the workers. The information collected from individual businesses will remain confidential, with only combined statistics released to the public, including the total number of businesses in the sector, the number of people employed, the volume of products produced and the sector’s estimated economic impact.  Work will be done over the winter, with a report expected later in 2024.

There are an estimated 83 million black ash trees in Ontario, but it has been declared an endangered species because the invasive emerald ash borer. After a two year pause, the provincial government is set to start enforcing protections for black ash this month. The proposal  would only cover healthy trees in areas of the province hit hard by the ash borer. …”Anyone who would suggest that protecting habitat for black ash will help, simply don’t understand the dynamics of forests,” said Ian Dunn, the president and CEO of the Ontario Forest Industries Association. “As we know, it’s not a habitat issue. This is an invasive species issue. This is a forest health issue.” He is particularly concerned by a proposal creating a 30-metre protective buffer around any healthy black ash tree. “That would have catastrophic socioeconomic impacts, not just for forestry, every single activity in the province would be impacted,” he said.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND — A long-awaited provincial government report that has just been released looks at the state of P.E.I.’s forests, but doesn’t include data collected after post-tropical storm Fiona. The State of the Forest Report is completed every 10 years, with this latest version covering the decade from 2010 to 2020. It shows that forestry still accounts for 43 per cent of land use on the Island, compared to agriculture’s 38 per cent. Both of those figures dropped slightly compared to the previous survey. …Matt Angus, a forest inventory analyst with the province, says the report is accurate up to 2020, but it may not be a good representation of forests today. He said work continues to better understand how 2022’s post-tropical storm Fiona affected P.E.I.’s woodlands. 

Prince Edward Island, Canada — PEI’s forests are projected to capture and store between 0.04 and 0.08 megatonnes of carbon emissions per year in the coming decades with the help of PEI’s 16,000 woodlot owners, according to the latest State of Forest Report. The report covers PEI forest trends from 2010 to 2020. It gives residents and decision-makers a snapshot of PEI’s forests and is intended to stimulate discussion and inform individual management decisions. “For the first time, this State of the Forest Report includes information on forest carbon storage. Given that more than 85 per cent of PEI’s forests are privately owned, encouraging forest expansion and supporting sustainable management will be critical to ensuring Island forests can capture carbon for decades to come,” said Environment, Energy and Climate Action Minister Steven Myers. …The State of the Forest will help inform development of a new forest policy, with public consultations led by the Forestry Commission expected in 2024.

Timothy Halman

Five new wilderness areas and nine new nature reserves will be protected forever, the Nova Scotia government announced Wednesday. The new designations brings the total protected land in the province up to 13.45 per cent, according to a news release. Timothy Halman, minister of environment and climate change, says protecting nature benefits everyone, today and in the future. “Our government is protecting more of Nova Scotia’s land, wetlands and water for the many benefits they give us, helping us stay physically and mentally healthy, giving us clean air and drinking water, helping us fight climate change, strengthening biodiversity and preventing further biodiversity loss, providing habitat for wildlife and much more,” he said. …The climate minister also released the Collaborative Protected Areas Strategy, which “will guide the province’s work in achieving the goal to protect 20 per cent of Nova Scotia’s land and water mass,” the release says.

After the Atikamekw council of Wemotaci signed a forestry framework agreement with the government of Quebec, a blockade was erected in protest because some community members say they were not consulted. Dave Petiquay, who represents the Petiquay family, says some traditional families were not consulted in the on-going negotiations between the Wemotaci council and provincial government. “We don’t support this agreement. We maintain that the band council has no authority over ancestral territories other than reserve land. And I’ve told the other nations, the people, that they should take note of the Indian Act,” Petiquay said in a recent interview. This is not the first time members from Wemotaci’s traditional families have mobilized. Last spring, Petiquay and a few others set up another blockade. At the time, he told APTN News that the government was not respecting a harmonization agreement on forestry activities on their land.

SIOUX LOOKOUT, ONTARIO – People in the Hudson area spoke up, and the Ontario government listened. A petition and letter-writing campaign has succeeded in getting the wilderness area just west of Hudson spared from mass tree harvesting. “We really are overjoyed and thankful for all the support we had from the community and from the municipality,” Hudson resident Lesley Starratt said Monday. Starratt was among those concerned that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s draft 10-year management plan for the Lac Seul Forest would devastate an area popular with outdoors enthusiast and residents. She recently learned that the ministry’s finalized plan includes forest preservation along Johnny Lucs Road and Goodie Lake Road.

The government of Nova Scotia said it plans to replace its fleet of four Airbus H125 helicopters. The province acquired its current fleet in 2016 and plans to negotiate and purchase a new set of four H125s with its current provider, according to a public procurement document. “Being prepared for emergencies such as wildfires is critical to protecting communities and Nova Scotians,” said Tory Rushton, the province’s natural resources minister. “That’s why we’re considering all options and are upgrading our fleet of helicopters to ensure we can manage wildfires in the future.” A tender for the acquisition is set to close Jan. 3, 2024. Nova Scotia will leverage $12.8 million in funding from Canada’s federal government to help pay for the new fleet, part of a five-year agreement for firefighting training and equipment.

HALIFAX — A new study says Canadian homeowners and communities can slash wildfire risks to buildings if they start taking steps like cutting buffer zones and using fire resistant construction materials. The study released Sunday by the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo is noting that the 2023 wildfire season saw wildfire losses that shattered previous records set in 1995, with an area about one quarter the land mass of Manitoba going up in flames. …The study also advocates for steps that communities can take, such as removing tree branches close to power lines, incorporating 30-metre buffer zones into community design, and ensuring adequate water supply for firefighting. …The centre’s research estimates that in areas at high risk of wildfire, communities could save $34 for every dollar invested in fire-resistant construction choices, and $14 for every dollar of retrofitting of buildings and facilities to be more fire resistant.

Wilderness champions are renewing their push to safeguard Wolf Lake, in the Chiniguchi area near Sudbury, from the impacts of mining activity. In a recent article published at the Ontario Nature website, former Science North biologist and Wolf Lake Coalition member Franco Mariotti argues there should no longer be any dawdling on a plan the province itself articulated years ago — in the Mike Harris era, no less — for the area’s protection. “In 1999 the Ontario government’s Lands for Life public planning process declared Wolf Lake ‘a park in waiting,’ stating that once the mineral leases would lapse the area would become a park,” he notes. Two-dozen years later, it’s the park proponents who are still waiting, while junior miners continue to probe for riches — without, in Mariotti’s assessment, finding anything worth the disruption to the environment.

Yemi Adeyeye

Dave Lawson lives next to Optimist Memorial Park and says he walks through it almost everyday. The Windsor resident says before Thursday night’s city-run information session about a possible controlled burn in the park next year he was worried — but not now. “Having seen what their [city] plan can do. It’s not nearly as dangerous as I thought it might have been,” said Lawson. He says he wasn’t sure if a controlled burn could get out of control and what the end result would look like. …City of Windsor forester Yemi Adeyeye says the purpose of a burn in the park’s wooded area would be to foster growth of desirable species and get rid of materials people could light on fire. “Dry leaves that will fall … on the ground. That could really cause an accidental burning, or someone who will go there intentionally to burn it up,” he said.

HALIFAX — Forestry consultant Mike Lancaster sees a natural, long-term solution to the threat wildfires pose to city dwellers. The director of the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association says much of the 1,000 hectares that ignited in May — destroying 151 homes and businesses in Halifax’s western suburbs — was young, dense, coniferous woodland that had grown after decades of intensive logging. Pointing to the canopy of older-growth trees just three kilometres from lands scarred by wildfire, Lancaster describes how the space between the trees, the mixture of species and the higher branches decrease flammability. He says Nova Scotia should plan for centuries of restoration — rather than continuing a cycle of encouraging highly combustible trees and frequent cutting. “If we clear cut forests, it’s going to reduce the risk in the short term, but in decades … we’ll be back into the same problem of fire risk we already had,” he says.

About 60 kilometres east of Ottawa sits a forest resurrected. In the early 1900s, a canopy of hemlock and white pines was cleared to plant crops – an ill-guided plan, as the sandy soils proved unsuitable for agriculture. So sat a desert of abandoned farms near Bourget, Ontario until a local agronomist started planting conifers on the land in the late 1920s. Since then, thanks to collaborative efforts, the landscape has regrown and, with 18 million trees planted, it has transformed into a thriving, biodiverse woodland. It is now called Larose Forest, one of the largest community forests in southern Ontario – a sanctuary for wildlife and an important place for people to connect with nature amidst Canada’s most populous region. A small team at the United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR) planning and forestry department leads the responsible management of Larose – efforts that have earned FSC certification for nearly 20 years. 

QUEBEC — An Atikamekw community in northern Quebec recently signed a relationship framework with the Quebec government in order to manage forestry and other economic activity in and around the community. The Atikamekw Council of Wemotaci signed its relationship agreement with the Quebec government last Thursday, thereby making the ‘The Nahitatowin masinahikan Relationship Framework Agreement between the Quebec government and the Atkiamekw of Wemotaci’ official. The agreement will regulate forestry activities in and around the community and will provide the framework for collaboration and negotiation when it comes to protection, management and valuation of the ancestral, unceded territory of the Atikamekw of Wemotaci for today and future generations, the Atikamekw Council of Wemotaci chief said. …Vivianne Chilton said, “this will allow us to better protect the resources on our traditional unceded territory.”