STOP Government Plans to Clearcut Ontario
Source: Peaceful Parks Coalition, Canada
Email ppc@canoemail.com
Date: October 3, 2000
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is currently developing forest management guidelines which would introduce the ludicrous notion that clearcuts emulate natural forest fires. By using the analogy of wildfire, these guidelines could pave the way for clearcuts as large as 10,000 ha across Ontario's vast boreal forest.
The Draft Fire Simulation Guidelines are now posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights Registry for public comment. See www.eco.on.ca, or our "Call To Action" section below.
Background
These guidelines are being developed because MNR is bound by the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, which requires that silvicultural practices emulate natural disturbances and landscape patterns while minimizing adverse effects on plant life, animal life, water, soil, air, and social and economic values, including recreational values and heritage values.
The Ministry is using its new legislation to endorse the theory that clearcut disturbances emulate forest fire disturbances and has recommended clearcuts as large as 10,000 ha arguing that forest fires can reach this size too (10,000 ha is approximately the size of 20,000 football fields).
However, the available scientific evidence indicates that clearcuts do not mimic fire disturbance, and rather this is simply the government's tactic to justify large clearcuts as the primary method of timber extraction in Ontario's boreal forest
Forest fires are an integrating force that produce many effects at once and it has yet to be determined which effects are most important. However, it is certain that if a disturbance is going to be 10,000 ha, it's going to be bad news ecologically if that disturbance removes all the standing trees!!! Taking the size of disturbance as one factor in isolation of others, such as nutrient release, the role of insects, pathogens and maintaining genetic seed sources is illogical, not ecological.
The worst things that clearcuts do is remove the standing biomass and genetic stock of forest sites. In addition they cause soil compaction, promote broadleaf regeneration rather than conifer regeneration, are usually linked with the introduction of persistent, toxic pesticides and remove or damage wildlife habitat.
The intent of the Crown Forest Sustainability Act was to improve the way we harvest Ontario's forests, not to make it worse. 10,000 ha cuts are doomed to failure especially in caribou country. Ontario's forest dwelling woodland caribou is now considered a species at risk, partly because of logging. Everywhere we have logged in this province, we have lost the caribou. Yet the Ministry tries to tell folks that large cuts will help the caribou and other wildlife dependent on old growth forests.
A Call To Action
Here's your chance to tell the Harris Government what you THINK.
*According to the World Resource Institute, only 20% of the world's original forests remain. Ontario's boreal region is globally significant and thus the Harris government has an international responsibility to protect one of the last remaining intact pristine forests. Given the global context of disappearing frontier forests, we must re-examine if we need to harvest our forests at all.
*Many boreal wildlife species require continuous old growth wilderness areas such as Ontario's Forest Woodland Caribou. Their habitat must be protected. The amount of logging must fall to accommodate protection, and should be the result of an ecosystem-based planning process.
*Protection of wildlife habitat should be based on Conservation Biology science.
*Forest management needs to abandon the "landscape gardening" or "agricultural" approach to forest harvesting and regeneration and move towards a selection harvest which considers and protects all levels of the forest ecosystem including species habitat, watershed protection and intrinsic wilderness value .
*The ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples in relation to forests must be recognized, valued and applied as a critical part of defining ecological forest use. First Nations' rights and title should be honoured.
It is illogical to completely clearcut a forest and then recreate it through a forest management plan. The Ministry will recommend amalgamating small mosaic clearcuts over a 20 year period to eventually create one 10,000 ha clearcut. Only a few token trees will be left behind as residuals. But even the most catastrophic fires, which are rare, can leave as much as 40% of the trees untouched.
Please take the time to respond. Let them know what you think!
To get a copy of the guidelines, please contact:
Fran Paterson, MNR Forest Management Branch
70 Foster Drive, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, P6A 6V5
Tel. 705 945-5853 Fax 705 945-6711 Oremail: joe.churcher@mnr.gov.on.ca
All comments will be considered as part of the decision-making by the Ministry if they:
1) are submitted in writing
2) reference the EBR Registry number - EBR #PB00E7004
3) are received by the contact person within the specified comment period - September 29, 2000 - November 28,2000
Send comments to:
John McNicol, Wildlife Specialist
MNR Centre for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research 955 Oliver Road,
Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1Tel. 807 343-4002 Fax 807 343-4001
Email: john.mcnicol@mnr.gov.on.ca
For assistance in reviewing the Draft Fire Simulation Guidelines or to receive a copy of the Peaceful Parks discussion paper, Natural Fires vs Clearcuts, please contact us at:
Peaceful Parks Coalition, P.O. Box 326, Station B, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2W2,
Tel. 416 537-3212
Email: ppc@canoemail.com