Nova Scotia review of forestry practices needs to tackle clear cutting:group

He said that simply produces “low-value, high-volume commodity products.”

“Our future cannot be in shipping chips and pellets to Europe, we don’t have a forest that can sustain that.”

Plourde maintain the review isn’t needed because of the exhaustive work done as part of the province’s 10-year natural resources strategy, released in 2011.

Still, Plourde sees the review as an opportunity to restore a balance that was abandoned when the government announced last year that it was moving away from a goal of reducing clear cutting on Crown land by 50 per cent.

“That (target) absolutely needs to come back,” said Plourde. “Governments always talk about finding a balance and say we need to balance economic and environmental. The natural resources strategy committed to that 50 per cent target partially based on science, but also based on balance.”

During the election campaign, Premier Stephen McNeil said the review was the result of listening to market access concerns expressed by private woodlot owners and to objections raised by those concerned about harvesting levels and practices on Crown land.

The government says about 63 per cent of wood harvested on Crown land in 2016 was by clearcut.

Plourde said according to the federal government’s National Forestry Database, about 90 per cent of all harvests in Nova Scotia are done by clear cutting — “a little less for Crown (land) and a little more for private.”

He said the Department of Natural Resources and the industry are out of step with what the public wants.

“It doesn’t want to see the forest industry disappear … but it wants to see a forest industry that is more in sync with society’s aspirations for what our natural resources can do in terms of providing a variety of services including economic benefits.”

Jeff Bishop, executive director of the industry group Forest Nova Scotia, said he believes the review will pose no concerns for the sector, although he was careful to say that would depend on the terms of reference.

Bishop said the province’s new position on clearcutting is based on science that examines what is grown on the land base and what can be grown there in the future.

“We were not enthusiastic about the idea of a cap because to us that went against the science. It was an artificial cap if you will.”

Bishop also takes issue with national statistics he said don’t account for activities that take place on private land that don’t have to be reported.

Crown land accounts for about 35 per cent of forested areas in the province, with the remaining 65 per cent controlled by about 30,000 private woodlot owners.

“We forget there are a lot of individuals in this province that own and manage forest lands,” Bishop said. “They are making the decisions on what to do on their forest lands and that’s their right because it’s their land.”

The province amended its renewable electricity regulations in April of last year to scrap rules requiring the Port Hawkesbury plant to run at full capacity, meaning it would require less wood.

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Nova Scotia review of forestry practices needs to tackle clear cutting:group

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