CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The province’s auditor general has revealed the P.E.I. government is not following its own policies and regulations for management of forests on public lands. In a new report released on Jan. 11, auditor general Darren Noonan also found the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action (EECA), tasked with overseeing the 81,510 acres of forests located on publicly owned land, has not conducted audits to determine whether or not wood harvested for biomass is being harvested sustainably. P.E.I.’s most recent state of the forest report from 2013 found 617,500 acres of the province’s landmass is forest. This represents about 44 per cent of P.E.I.’s total landmass. The audit of forestry management examined the period between Dec. 1, 2018, and March 31, 2022. It did not take into account the impacts of post-tropical storm Fiona on the province’s forests.