Image Source: Ontario Forest Industries Association
The Ontario Forest Industries Association asks this on its website:
When will Ontario harvest its last tree?And answers:
Never.More from the website:
As stewards of Ontario’s forests, OFIA’s members are committed to the sustainable, responsible use of this amazing resource. Close to 90% of Ontario’s forests are publicly owned and known as Crown lands. 44% of these Crown lands are managed forests. By sustainably using less than one percent of our Crown trees annually, Ontario’s forest sector is able to generate real prosperity and support over 170,000 families across the province. That is a very awesome return on a renewable crop.Steve Paiken of Television Ontario had a panel on "The North" last night, where the main topic of the agenda was the forestry legacy of northern Ontario.
Sustainable forest management is a way of using and caring for forests in order to maintain environmental, social and economic values over time. According to the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), sustainable forest management helps Ontario’s forests:
Remain healthy and productive.
Support a strong forest industry and provide people with jobs and forest products.
Conserve biodiversity, enhance or protect wildlife habitat, watersheds, and other values, and help adapt and mitigate to climate change.
Support Ontario communities, provide recreational opportunities, and provide a healthy living environment.
The panelists all agreed that the Ontario forests were abundant and healthy for the most part. But "stewardship" is necessary to maintain these forests.
TVO says this about the topic:
The people who cut down trees and turn that wood into the items we use every day have an expression: "forestry builds communities." The Agenda discusses Ontario's forest industry with panel representing Ontario's 170,000 people whose livelihoods depend on a thriving forestry sector.
Marking shows location of McRae Lumber Company, near Algonquin Provincial Park
Jamie McRae (Left) and his uncle John McCrae
In the early 1900s, John Duncan McRae, the son of Scottish immigrants, was the first family member to be involved in the forest industry. Today, one of his great, great grandsons is following in his footsteps and the footsteps of three other generations of McRaes that have made their living from the forest. Jamie McRae, who is in his early 30s, says he basically “grew up in the business” with his father Robert and his uncle, another John McRae, passing on the 30 years of knowledge and experience they have each acquired during their shared leadership role at McRae Lumber.Steve Paiken asks Jamie Mcrae on the panel, who is fifth generation in his family forestry business, McRae Lumber Company near Algonquin Park:
“It all started when my great, great grandfather operated a sawmill, a grist mill, and a power utility on the Bonnechere River in Eganville, Ontario,” Jamie says. “He used the river water for power until a major fire in 1911 destroyed half the town, including the power utility.”
It was John Duncan’s son and Jamie’s great grandfather, John Stanley Lothian (JSL) McRae, who continued the family tradition, making the 80-kilometre trek west from Eganville to the southern reaches of Algonquin Park, near Whitney. He started out as a jobber, cutting pine for the Mickle & Dyment Lumber Co., but when the pine started to run short, he bought the Mickle & Dyment mill and began to cut and saw hardwood. [Source: Family Ties, Wood Business, 2009]
Paiken: What's a change in policy that you would love to see?
MCrae: What we're hopping for in forestry is that we see a general shift n the way that policy is applied to the industry...Maybe we're not known as widely as some of the sectors in southern Ontario. There's a chance that we're not as top of mind.
Paiken: Can you give me an example of one regulation that you think is ridiculous and they ought to cut it out.
MCrae: Well there s a lot of talk with harmonizing different..Endangered Species Act with the Crown force its Sustainability Act...
Paiken: Can I cut to the chase on that? That means that the folks at Queens Park are more worried about baby elk than about your livelihood.
MCrae: Well, don't forget we're worried about the species too. Because, as one of the things I always to point out is the fact that we've been in forestry for a long time, we all have. We've been here for generations all of us, and we're still dong a good job on the landscape. We're stewards of the land, that's what we like to say. We're the people you want looking out for the species. We live n the forest. We live right beside where we harvest. We live there full-time. So I think that we're generally pretty good stewards of the land. And I think that sometimes that's a little bit forgotten at Queen's Park.
Below is the video of the 1/2 hour panel discussion:
Riverwood Conservancy, with the Credit River, June 2016
Photo By: [KPA]