Region Archives: Canada East

GATINEAU, QC – The governments of Canada and Ontario have reached an agreement to support the conservation and recovery of boreal caribou in Ontario.  The boreal caribou is an iconic species. It is listed as a threatened species under both the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) and the Ontario Endangered Species Act. By entering into a conservation agreement under section 11 of SARA, the governments of Canada and Ontario will collaborate to take important actions to benefit the caribou and its recovery in Ontario.  Together, Canada and Ontario are acting on a shared commitment to caribou conservation and recovery. The agreement builds on Ontario’s ongoing caribou conservation program and the federal caribou action plan, through cooperation and investment in monitoring, reporting, protection, restoration, planning, management, and stewardship actions.

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick — Loïc D’Orangeville, a University of New Brunswick associate professor… is working on a project to collect core wood samples from the trees and to study the width of the rings within them. That will help confirm the age of the towering trees. So far, his research suggests these old growth hemlock trees are among the oldest in the province, some still standing tall 500 years after erupting from their seeds. If his research can prove their age, he hopes “we can perhaps better protect them from future threats.” Old growth trees are special because they haven’t been affected by humans or natural disturbances for multiple centuries. …D’Orangeville hopes some of the information will also help understand how climate change and warming temperatures affect the forests.

The Ontario Liberal Party is promising that the province would plant 800 million trees if the party wins the June 2 election. Leader Steven Del Duca says his plan would plant 100 million trees every year for eight years. He says Ontario families would have access to trees for free if they want to plant them at their homes. The Liberal plan would also provide municipalities with trees at no cost to plant in their communities. Del Duca says his plan will help in removing pollution from the air in the province. The Liberals say their plan will create about 2,000 jobs for graduates and students. 

Private woodlot owners are raising concerns about a proposed new bylaw by the City of Miramichi which would require city approval before property owners could clear cut their land.  “It’s very alarming, to say the least,” said Kevin Forgrave, executive director of the Northumberland Woodlot Owners Association. “And it’s a large infringement on all the family forest owners in the area.” Currently, there are about 400 private woodlot owners within Miramichi city limits who have about 12,000 hectares of property. After municipal reform and amalgamation, Forgrave says the new entity will include about 700 woodlot owners with 16,000 hectares affected by the bylaw. Crown land wouldn’t be impacted. The draft bylaw would require woodlot owners to apply to the city for permission to clear cut any portion of their land. Forgrave said it will be the only municipal bylaw of its kind in Atlantic Canada. 

A plan by Corner Brook Pulp and Paper to harvest wood in an area of central Newfoundland has upset some residents of the Glenwood to Gander Bay area, including some Mi’kmaw people. The paper company has approval, subject to conditions, to cut timber in an area known locally as Charlie’s Place, a 63-square-kilometre block of land between the Northwest and Southwest Gander rivers. One of the conditions is that Corner Brook Pulp and Paper must submit a stakeholder engagement report, which would be based on contact with people who’d expressed concern during the environmental assessment process last year. But residents of the area say the paper company and provincial government are not listening to their concerns. Calvin Francis, chief of the Gander Bay Indian Band, says …He wants it protected from wood harvesting. 

Steven Guilbeault

MONTREAL – Ottawa is moving forward with plans to unilaterally protect Quebec caribou after the province failed to meet a deadline to provide an acceptable proposal, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Thursday. Guilbeault had given Quebec until Wednesday to submit its plan to protect the at-risk woodland caribou and their habitat. He said the province has yet to demonstrate it’s serious about protecting the caribou, adding that the province’s wildlife minister appears to be “going in the opposite direction” in some regions. Guilbeault said there is still time for the province to avoid the decree, and his preference would be to negotiate an agreement. “Unfortunately, the Quebec government so far has shown very little willingness to do that, which has forced me to move into the adoption of an emergency decree by cabinet,” he said. 

Montréal, Québec  – Groupements forestiers Québec …with its more than 26,000 private forest landowners, and FPInnovations… have been awarded $6,678,540 as part of the Digital Transformation Offensive, a strategic initiative led by the Québec Ministry of the Economy and Innovation (MEI), in order to accelerate the digital transformation of companies in all sectors of activity and regions of Québec. The MEI’s investment…supports efforts by Groupements forestiers Québec to modernize and optimize logging operations in private forests and will enable FPInnovations to continue to develop and implement solutions and technologies that create economic value and improve the forest sector’s competitiveness and efficiency. The digital transformation will also significantly reduce energy consumption and, consequently, greenhouse gas emissions. The digital transformation of logging operations component will … educate and guide loggers as they implement a remote performance monitoring and troubleshooting solution. …The optimization of industrial drying equipment will create a new pilot drying process monitoring system…

Indigenous youth and students can take part in several programs that can help build their resumes. The Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is offering a number of positions for First Nation, Metis and Inuit peoples. Students aged 15 to 24 can apply for the Indigenous Youth Work Exchange Program, which will allow them to get work experience in natural resource management. Job types include working in an office or lab or monitoring the health of forests. In addition, graduates with a college or university diploma, degree or post-graduate certificate can apply to the Indigenous Internship Program.

MONTRÉAL – After successful meetings with both federal ministers and Ontario government officials, FSC is heartened by the federal government’s April 20th deadline given to the Province of Quebec regarding the conservation of habitat for species-at-risk, woodland caribou. “The conservation of habitat for woodland caribou is not just about caribou, it’s about the health and biodiversity of the entire Canadian boreal forest,” says Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Canada president Francois Dufresne. “Woodland caribou are an important umbrella species. Healthy populations provide a clear indication that the forests can support biodiversity.” FSC is calling upon the Quebec government to collaborate meaningfully with the federal government and is even offering their support and subject matter expertise to help Quebec achieve the goals of the Federal Caribou Recovery Strategy. Consultation and collaboration with Indigenous Peoples must be core to any government strategy… Plans are already being implemented by FSC certificate holders in …forests with woodland caribou ranges…

P.E.I. National Park is expanding its fight against invasive species that can come to the Island on firewood brought by unwitting campers. “There are some invasives that we absolutely don’t want here that are in Nova Scotia [and] New Brunswick,” said Beth Hoar, chair of the P.E.I. Invasive Species Council. The Don’t Move Firewood project aims to eliminate out-of-province wood that may carry invasive plant pests such as the emerald ash borer. To prevent that, Parks Canada is installing firewood drop-off bins in Cavendish and Stanhope, to go along with bins installed last year at visitor centres in Borden-Carleton and Wood Islands. The bins contain sticky traps so any bugs on the wood can’t escape. A conservation team will monitor the bins to study any key invasive species that have come in with the wood. The bundles of firewood are then taken to P.E.I. Energy Systems to be incinerated.

Rick Doman

GreenFirst Forest Products CEO and industry veteran Rick Doman explains what makes the brand-new forestry company unique, and how they plan to grow with a commitment to sustainable forest management and lumber production. Rick Doman knows a little something about lumber. He’s been at the helm of two major producers, Doman Industries – now Western Forest Products – and EACOM Timber Corporation, which was recently acquired by Interfor.  With his newest venture, GreenFirst Forest Products, the seasoned executive is hoping to keep batting 1,000. GreenFirst made waves as the new kid on the block in August last year with the acquisition of six Rayonier sawmills and a newsprint plant in Ontario and Quebec. The company purchased the idled Kenora Forest Products mill in Ontario the year before. With all acquisitions tallied, their total yearly lumber capacity sits at around 905 million bdft. 

Rod Cumberland

NEW BRUNSWICK—Wildlife biologist Rod Cumberland is continuing to speak out about the impact of the herbicide glyphosate on New Brunswick forests, even after his dismissal from his college which he claims was due to being outspoken on the subject. “If your glyphosate is so good…let everybody sit at the table, discuss the science, and let’s look at whether it actually is or not,” Cumberland said. Cumberland… claims the heavy use of glyphosate in forestry has devastated the province’s white-tailed deer population, which has plummeted by over 70% since the mid-1980s. Cumberland was fired from the Maritime College of Forest Technology in 2019. …He was let go for … making sexist and discriminatory comments, and undermining his colleagues’ authority. But Cumberland claims he was fired for expressing his views on the forest industry’s use of the herbicide glyphosate, which is why he filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the college.

NOVA SCOTIA — The Petite Rivière watershed in southwestern Nova Scotia is home to the world’s only remaining population of Atlantic whitefish. It’s also where a new forestry cutblock on Crown land is proposed, much to the concern of environmentalists and scientists who say any activity could threaten the fish. Among them is Paul Bentzen, who runs a lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax dedicated to researching and protecting the fish, which are estimated to have diverged from other species of whitefish more than 10 million years ago. He notes the whitefish are an anomaly — there are no other species endemic to Canada that are both so ancient and so endangered. According to estimates from 2012, there were only about 40 able to reproduce or contribute sperm to make more fish.”

PEMBROKE – In Renfrew County and across Ontario, 2021 was a record year for spongy moth, a non-native, invasive pest (previously known as LDD moth and Gypsy moth). Spongy moth has more than 300 known host plants, but prefers poplar, oak, maple, birch, willow, white pine and white spruce. The visual impacts during a severe defoliation year can be quite startling – a single spongy moth caterpillar can eat one square metre of leaves in a season. Although trees are stressed by defoliation, most healthy deciduous trees will produce a second crop of leaves shortly after, enabling them to continue to grow and survive two to three years of defoliation. Conifers are unable to reflush and are more likely to suffer branch dieback or tree death. …If you observe egg masses on your property, now is the time to scrape them from surfaces and dispose of them in a soap and water mixture or burn them. 

A Kenora-based “natural leader” often sought by colleagues from across the province for advice has been named the 2022 Conservation Officer of the Year. Jeff Milloy, part of the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources, and Forestry (NDMNRF) Kenora Enforcement Unit, was announced as the award recipient by the Ontario Conservation Officers Association (OCOA) on Tuesday, April 12. Milloy became a conservation officer in Chatham in 2001 and worked in Pembroke before coming Kenora. He started his career in the ministry in 1995, holding positions including resource planner, wildlife technician, fisheries technician, fire ranger, resource technician, biologist, and port observer. His recent work includes completing joint investigations with several US states to protect Ontario’s moose population and acting as an operations section chief to help with public safety during last year’s devastating forest fire season in northwestern Ontario.

Peter Kuitenbrouwer

Before Christmas I became a registered professional forester… The Ontario Professional Foresters Association, which governs the profession, asked me to speak this month at its annual conference. Given my two skill sets, journalist and now, forester, they wanted me to talk about how foresters can better communicate with the public. A forester on the conference organizing committee noted that, when a new highway opens, you don’t see a bunch of motorists parked at the side of the road by a new bridge, wondering whether it is safe to continue. The drivers cross the bridge, because they trust the engineers who designed it. Why, he asks, does the public not feel the same trust in foresters? Why, from Fairy Creek in British Columbia to … Annapolis County in Nova Scotia, does the public always second-guess the foresters? 

As warmer spring weather arrives in Dufferin County, the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is predicting an increase in population of the Lymantria dispar dispar (LDD) moth, also known as the spongy moth, across the province this year. “That’s largely due to the fact that there are some areas on large swaths in sort of northern and eastern Ontario that are in year one or two of an outbreak,” said Bryana McLaughlin, coordinator of the invasive species and habitat structure programs for the Credit Valley Conservation Authority (CVC). “They’re expecting that those areas will expand for most of the CVC watershed and probably into Dufferin County.” While a population increase is predicted for across the province, in Dufferin County the population could possibly be on a decline as areas enter year three to four of an outbreak of the tree pest.

Residential property owners are encouraged to help grow the tree canopy over the city this spring. The new program, Grow Our Canopy, is aimed at helping residents purchase trees for their yards. Trees for Nipissing has teamed up with the City of North Bay to make 100 trees available at a cost of $15 each to qualified residential property owners who successfully complete an online application form. “Trees for Nipissing is so excited to be providing this program for North Bay homeowners,” Trees for Nipissing chair Peggy Walsh Craig said. “It is a good start to increasing the tree canopy for future generations this year and many more to come.

April marks the official beginning of the forest fire season in Ontario, and while experts in the field are hoping for a quieter season than last, they’re already preparing for the worst. Last year, more hectares of land in the province in 2021 than in any other year in history. “What is quite different about our situation in 2022 thus far is that in most places are starting the season with a lot more snow on the ground,” said Marchand. …”Although the amount of snow depth plays a role in regulating the moisture content of the vegetation, the amount of rain that we saw last fall and weather conditions once an area becomes snow free, those are also important factors when determining how susceptible an area will be to wildland fire,” Marchand explained.