Lands and Forestry minister Iain Rankin response - dysfunctional and disappointing
The provincial government should halt clear cutting on crown land, according to the Councils for the Municipality of Shelburne and Towns of Lockeport and Shelburne, until new legislation based on the 2018 Lahey Report can come into effect.
Incorrect and biased towards clearcutting
Wildlife biologist Bob Bancroft and forestry expert Donna Crossland also weighed on the subject, telling the various councils in a letter that proposed harvests near Lake Deception in Upper Ohio "fall far short of the ecological forestry practices envisioned by the Independent Forest Review delivered by Dr Lahey in August 2018, and which recognized critical flaws in the ‘Forest Management Guides’ that are used to derive harvest prescriptions." The pair added that the guides used for harvest proposals near Deception Lake and elsewhere "...are incorrect and biased towards clearcutting."
Despite the obvious shortcomings in the guides, the letter adds, they continue to be applied in the same way 16 months after the Lahey Report was submitted, with only some measures added to retain small percentages of trees within the clearcuts. "These harvest proposals have no place in ecologically-healthy forest practices," Bancroft and Crossland conclude.
The clearcuts, Bancroft told News 95.7 radio, tends to grow back in softwoods, which are actually quite vulnerable. "They're shallow-rooted and they're prone to drought problems and wind problems," Bancroft told Todd Veinotte.
Bancroft said that forestry companies want to grow softwood because it sells best.
Management meetings cancelled
Although forest management meetings designed to inform the public on progress with Lahey Report implementation have been promised by government, there has yet to be one, with several planned meetings cancelled by the Department of Lands and Forestry.
If and when Lahey's recommendations are implemented, most of the crown land would be in the ecological forestry category, with some protected and some would be committed to intensive forest management.
Public land should not be plundered
Bancroft says that the government is a victim of "corporate capture, with public resource on crown lands used for private gain," he says, with bureaucrats and politicians involved in making harvesting decisions serving the pulp companies and lumber companies instead of the citizens that elected them and whose lands should be held in trust.
"Public land should simply not be plundered for private profits," Bancroft wrote. "Successive provincial governments, while in power, have allowed business/corporate interests to progressively degrade our forests and their wildlife with impunity."
Bancroft says the conversion to softwoods, rather than hardwood/softwood mix, makes the forest vulnerable to insects and droughts.
Large tracts in Shelburne County targeted for clear-cutting
For more than a year, citizens in Shelburne County have prevailed upon Lands and Forestry minister Iain Rankin to reconsider his department's approvals for industrial forestry coalition Westfor to clearcut large swaths of crown land in Shelburne County and elsewhere. Large tracts of crown land in Clyde River and Allendale have also been targeted by Rankin and his bureaucrats. An open letter to Rankin from Community Forests - Shelburne County protesting the clear cuts was signed by more than 1000 people and signs protesting the cuts have been posted throughout the County.
Forestry activist John Davis has called for the resignation of Lands and Forestry minister Iain Rankin for his dysfunctional and disappointing response to the letters from municipal councils in Shelburne County.
