Temagami Chainsaws Quiet Awaiting Environmental Decision

TEMAGAMI, Ontario, Canada, June 18, 2004 (ENS) - The forests in this ecologically unique region of northeastern Ontario have been silent this spring. Logging and road building was to have begun April 1 according to the provincial logging plan, but the Ontario Ministry of Environment has halted logging while considering a challenge to the plan by the environmental group Earthroots.

Earthroots petitioned the Minister of the Environment to submit the plan to an individual environmental assessment in February. Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky has yet to make a decision on the issues.

The Earthroots request was based on the Ministry of Natural Resources' failure to manage the forest according to the Temagami Land Use Plan. "The land use plan, one of the most comprehensive in Ontario, is clear, and logging has totally failed to adhere to it," said Victor Lorentz of Earthroots.

The group says it called for the assessment over the failure to control logging roads, cited by the forest auditors, and the lack of a coordinated recreation strategy, required by the rules governing logging and land use.

Boreal forest in the Temagami region of Ontario. (Photo courtesy Earthroots/Greenpeace Canada)

“Our challenge addresses issues fundamental to the management of the land base in Temagami and plans for logging need to be amended to ensure protection of Temagami’s unique features,” he said.

The Temagami lies within a climatic and vegetation zone known as the Boreal-Great Lakes-St.Lawrence Transition Forest. Most of the forest consists of mixed and pure stands of white, red and jack pine, black and white spruce, white birch, poplar, balsam fir and cedar. Maple, red oak and yellow birch are also common in the southern portions of the unit.

A number of companies take wood from this forest management unit, including Grant Forest Products, Goulard Lumber (1971) Ltd., Elk Lake Planing Mill, Domtar, and Tembec Forest Products Inc. In addition, there are several small, independent operators who have logging operations and sell material to area mills.

These months are a seasonal downtime when spring thaw leaves the ground too wet and soft for logging, so to date, the moratorium has had little effect on the forest industry.

With one exception, Ontario historically has avoided granting environmental assessments on timber management plans. Conservationists have little hope that Dombrowsky, a Liberal, will protect the Temagami forest, but the possibility does exist.

Ontario Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky (Photo courtesy Office of the Minister)

The land use plan is not a legal document but a master plan that applies to government lands and is serves as a guideline for the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Earthroots objects to the devastation left after clearcut logging in the Temagami. But new forestry rules introduced in July 2003 do not limit clearcut size.

Ontarians can expect to see clearcuts ranging up to 10,000 hectares, the size of 17,000 football fields, on a regular basis, Earthroots said, placing Ontario in the company of just a handful of jurisdictions in North America that do not place limitations on the sizes of clearcuts.

The new rules removed any obligation for maintaining roadless wilderness in the managed forest, opening the way for rapid expansion of logging road networks into previously pristine areas.

The rules set no clear minimum requirements for the conservation of old growth forests in Ontario. Old growth red and white pine forests now exist on only one percent of their original range, Earthroots warns.

The new rules do not expire. Before they were put in place a review process had been underway allowing for public input into the details of the new regulations. This will never happen again, Earthroots says, unless the rules are amended to permit it.

The problem, says Earthroots, is that the existing level of cut in the Temagami is ecologically unsustainable.

In the "State of the Forests 2001 Report," the Ministry of Natural Resources predicted a decline in available wood supply starting in 2002 due to a combination of poor regeneration practices, fire suppression and some natural shifts in the age of the forest.

The real problem is that the Ontario forest industry has been logging at unsustainable levels, Earthroots says.

Boreal forest clearcuts like this one are what Earthroots and other conservation groups want to avoid. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

Grant Forest Products, one of the country's largest wood products companies, says it puts environmental and sustainability issues at the core of operations.

"Grant Forest Products boasts the reputation of being one of the most efficient consumers of woodland resources in the forest products industry. Because Grant manufactures OSB [oriented strandboard] which requires small strands of fiber, rather than plywood or lumber, almost 100 percent of every tree that we harvest is used in OSB production.

Grant OSB is made primarily from aspen poplar, the company says, a relatively fast-growing and maturing tree variety, which allows for quicker re-growth and reforestation than the use of other tree species.

Grant Forest Products says it works to ensure that its woodland operations do not impose detrimental effects on water resources, soil quality, and fish and wildlife habitat. "We respect and adhere to all Ministry of Natural Resources guidelines and are ISO 14001 certified in our woodland operations," the company says.