(Fredericton)  The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, New Brunswick Chapter (CPAWS NB)  says the new Crown forest management plan announced today by the Minister of Natural Resources is a step backwards for conservation.

Roberta Clowater, Executive Director of CPAWS NB, said, “The new Crown forest plan reduces the overall conservation of wildlife habitats and riverbank buffers.  This is disturbing because we know that wildlife researchers believe that current conservation levels may not be enough to maintain all the kinds of native wildlife throughout the province.  The government has now approved a plan to go even further below what is needed.  This is the wrong direction for conservation.”

Clowater said, “While the plan approves an increase in protected areas from 4% of Crown forest to 8% of Crown forest, this will result in only 4.5% of the province being protected.  This is not even in the ballpark of what is needed to ensure conservation of our rivers, wilderness areas and sensitive wildlife.  New Brunswick will still have the lowest protected areas proportion in Canada, only above PEI.  As well, the new protected areas will come from the currently conserved old forest, so there is actually a net loss in area to conservation.”

“Given concerns about climate changes and uncertainty about how well we are currently conserving habitats and water, we are very concerned about the decision to go from a 5 year plan to a 10 year plan.  We believe this is a risky move, one that locks us into very limited conservation objectives, and doesn’t provide the flexibility to improve conservation for another decade.”

“CPAWS NB appreciates that the Minister took the time to review the forest plan approved by the previous government, which would have severely rolled back conservation on public land.  We’re pleased that the Minister consulted widely with the conservation community, and recognized the value of habitat conservation as in important factor in his considerations,” noted Clowater.

CPAWS had recommended that at least 17% of Crown land (8.5% of the province), including the largest patches of old forest, be designated by 2015 in permanent protected areas, where no logging or mining would take place.  This amount would move us closer to the level in other provinces, where the average amount of land protected is nearly 9%.

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Contact:

Roberta Clowater, 506-452-9902; cpawsnb{at}nb.sympatico.ca

CPAWS is New Brunswick’s voice for wilderness.  For more information on CPAWS NB and our conservation work, please visit www.cpawsnb.org

Come see why this property is so important.

http://forestsinternational.org/projects/conservation-of-working-lands/

 

Since early 2009, CFI has been working with organic farmers and sustainable woodlot owners Clark Philips and Susan Tyler, as well as the New Brunswick Community Land Trust (NBCLT), in order to develop a succession plan for a unique 650 acre farm and Acadian Forest woodlot called Whaelghinbran Farm. Clark (74) and Susan (72), have been farming organically and practicing ecological forestry on their woodlot for over 40 years. By carefully harvesting and marketing timber they have begun a process of restoration, working to achieve the health and diversity found within the Acadian Forest Eco-region prior to European settlement. In order to continue this legacy, Clark, Susan, CFI and the NBCLT are working to uphold the principles and techniques employed at Whaelghinbran Farm through a working lands conservation agreement. CFI intends to steward the farm and woodlot under the conservation easement with a community of interested organizations and individuals, and is striving to establish a rural training centre on site.This training centre will provide students from the region with the knowledge, skills, and network necessary to become involved in a movement rooted in ecologically-based working lands in the Acadian Forest Eco-region. The multi-stakeholder community-based ecological forestry practiced at Whaelghinbran will also provide a strong example of alternative approaches to woodland management in the region.

Public Forest Conservation Campaign – Fall 2011

The provincial government will be deciding this fall whether to go ahead with the previous government’s plan for public forest use and conservation. The plan that was on the table would decrease the amount of forest that is managed specifically to conserve deer wintering habitat, old forests and stream bank buffer zones.

Based upon what we have learned from the Department of Natural Resources, this could mean a reduction of as much as 25% (one quarter) of some of these habitats. At the same time, the amount of plantations on public land would be increased to 28% of Crown forest.

The new Minister of Natural Resources has announced he will re-examine the previous plan this fall, and will announce a new forest plan after December.

New Brunswickers have rejected this before

The majority of the public told the Select Committee on Wood Supply in 2004 that they do not want fish and wildlife habitat to be sacrificed to increase wood supply. The Select Committee rejected industry’s request to put a cap on conservation zones, and instead recommended that the amount of clear-cutting be reduced.

A 2007 survey of the New Brunswick public showed that the overwhelming majority of people surveyed place highest priority on the forest’s protection of fresh water, air and wildlife habitat (Public views on forest management in New Brunswick: Report from a provincial survey).

Both the Select Committee hearings and the survey of New Brunswickers showed that our citizens expect government to stand up for what the people want, and to work with the natural forest we have.

The public also expressed they want more say in how forests are managed. Government has still not implemented any real public consultation strategy to involve the public in the public’s forest.

Will the government listen this time? We think yes.

We believe there is a real opening for New Brunswickers to speak up on behalf of our forests once again. This is a new government, and the Minister said he wants to hear more from conservationists and First Nations.

Please write a letter that tells government what is important to you about our forest, and what you expect government to do.

Send your letter to: Bruce Northrup, Minister of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 6000, Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1, and a copy to your MLA. We can provide a list of MLAs if you are not sure.

Make a short version of your letter and send it as a letter to the editor to your local newspaper, or one of the daily newspapers.

If you are part of a community group or NGO that would like to invite one of us to speak to your group on this topic (to answer questions, provide more detail), please contact us, as below.

For more information, please contact forest@ccnbaction.ca. More detailed information can be found on the following web sites: www.acadianforest.ca; www.cpawsnb.org.

Prepared by Crown Lands Network steering committee (CCNB Action, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-NB Chapter, Meduxnekeag River Society, Nature NB, Public for the Protection of the Forests of NB), a caucus of the NB Environmental Network.

The Rural Community of Upper Miramichi, Central NB Woodmen’s Museum and the Conservation Council of New Brunswick are proud to present the Upper Miramichi Forest Festival on Sunday, August 21st from 11am-4pm at the Woodmen’s Museum and Upper Miramichi Community Park (6342 Route 8, Boiestown). The first ever forest festival will also mark the official opening of the Upper Miramichi Community Park.

The forest festival will feature:

Morning run with the Miramichi River Runners

Wild blueberry pancake brunch

Vendors displaying wild berry jams & jellies, fiddleheads, crafts, wreaths and soaps.

A “Taste of Metepenagiag Tour” with berry teas and a demonstration of sealing a birch bark canoe with spruce gum.

Learn how to make cedar shingles, inoculate logs for shitake mushrooms and make soap.

Laugh out loud at a play by the The Saplings Theatre Production.

Join a forest scavenger hunt designed for all ages and learn how to identify the variety of flora and food in our forest.

Enjoy a game of horseshoes or washers, face-painting, tours of the Museum grounds and forest games for kids.

Learn about Upper Miramichi’s community forest initiatives. Check out a showcase of maps of Upper Miramichi’s forest produced by Mojo Mapping, Fundy Model Forest, the Rural Municipality of Upper Miramichi & the Conservation Council. Videos and literature on community forestry initiatives will be on hand for you to check out.

Enjoy a great day with family and friends and discover the many wonders and opportunities that our forest provides.

For more information, visit Upper Miramichi Community Forest Partnership at http://www.uppermiramichic​ommunityforest.org/

Detailed schedule coming soon!

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick is raising concerns with Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Crown Lands and Forest Act. The bill, which got Royal Assent today, June 10, amends the Act so that the government "shall compensate the licensee for other expenses of forest management in accordance with the regulations (Paragraph 38.2.b). The Act currently states that it "may reimburse the licensee for other expenses of forest management as may be provided for by regulation or by agreement."

"We are concerned that changing the law to require the Minister to compensate forest companies opens the door wide open to pay pulp and paper companies for reductions in their wood allocations. Would this mean that we would be forced to pay companies for loss of revenue for environmental protection measures? Would this mean that the forest management requirement for wildlife habitat zones in which only selection cutting is permitted would make the licensee eligible to be compensated for the difference in cost between clearcutting and selection cutting? Would it mean that forestry companies could be compensated for the value of wood fibre unavailable to it?" stated David Coon, CCNB's Executive Director.

The Department of Natural Resources will be reducing the annual allowable cut for softwoods and hardwoods on Crown lands in 2012 as the amount of softwood plantations were supposed to yield by now has not materialized, while hardwoods have been overcut.

"It is rare that legislation actually removes the discretion of a Minister in New Brunswick, but that is what replacing the word 'may' with 'shall' accomplishes," stated Tracy Glynn, CCNB's Forest Campaigner.  "What is the justification for this?" Glynn asked. "We need to know what regulations are being contemplated."

"Compensation is the holy grail that the Irving's have been seeking since they and other licensee's wrote the Minister demanding compensation back in 2001, which we obtained and leaked to the media. The resulting public outcry was deafening," added Coon. "Now we see compensation being written into the Crown Lands And Forest Act itself."

Half of New Brunswick's forest is Crown land. The right to manage New Brunswick's 3.4 million hectares of publicly-held forests has been transferred to mostly multinational companies including J.D. Irving Ltd., Fornebu Lumber Company, Twin Rivers (formerly Fraser Papers) and AV Group (AV Nackawic/AV Cell).

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David Coon, 458-8747
Tracy Glynn, 458-8747

CCNB Action - Jim Irving, President of J.D. Irving Ltd., has been travelling the province seeking support from business audiences for keeping the wood allocations to mills at 2007 levels.  The problem, according to CCNB Action’s Executive Director David Coon, is the forest on Crown land has been overcut and can no longer sustain such high quotas.

“The amount of wood cut from Crown land in 2006-2007 was double what was cut in 1966-1967.  We have seen the amount of wood cut from Crown lands on a five-year average increase by roughly 80%  over the past 40 years from 2.7 million cubic metres per year in the late 1960’s to almost 5 million cubic metres in the past decade ,” said Coon.    “The bottom line is we have overcut the public forest so wood quotas have got to be reduced in 2012,” he said.  “The good news is private woodlot owners across this province have plenty of wood to sell that can make up the difference and create work at the same time,” said Coon.

Half of New Brunswick’s forest is found on Crown land, while 30% of the forest is owned by private woodlot owners.

Five Year Average    //    Volume of Wood Cut from Crown Land (millions of cubic metres)*
1967-1972                      2.7 million cubic metres
1972-1977                      3.7 million cubic metres
1977-1982                      3.1 million cubic metres
1982-1987                      3.5 million cubic metres
1987-1992                      4.4 million cubic metres
1992-1997                      4.4 million cubic metres
1997-2002                      4.9 million cubic metres
2002-2007                      8.0 million cubic metres

*Data from DNR’s Timber Utilization Survey

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Contact:  David Coon, 458-8747