Category Archives: Non-Timber Forest Products

There is growing concern in Saskatchewan that the “Island Forests” will be clearcut.

The Island Forests are pockets of forests surrounded by farmland. There are more than 226,000 ha of Crown forest in the Island Forests in the Prince Albert Area.  The Island Forests include the Nisbet, Fort-a-la-Corne, Canwood and Torch River provincial forests (see map of the Island Forests).  These forests are close to communities and are used for many values, including timber.

Mushroom enthusiasts are particularly concerned about the old growth Torch River Forest area. They do not want to see this area harvested because of the mushrooms growing around the 140 year old jack pine trees, including chanterelle, pine, and morel mushrooms.

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Three people have been arrested in connection to the maple syrup heist in Quebec, and arrest warrants for 5 more people have been issued.

Between August 2011 and July 2012 over 9,600 barrels of maple syrup, worth about $18 million, were stolen from a warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, Quebec.

Police have arrested Richard Vallières, 34, of Loretteville and Avik Caron, 39, of Saint-Wenceslas.  The third person hasn’t been identified. The charges include theft, conspiracy, handling stolen goods, and fraud.

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Some of the maple syrup that was reported stolen from a Quebec warehouse this summer has been found in New Brunswick.

The syrup was found inside 700 barrels at S.K. Export in Kedgwick, in northern New Brunswick near Quebec’s Gaspe region.  Arrests are said to be imminent.

The barrels seized so far from the Kedgwick warehouse total approximately 119,000 litres of syrup, which is only a fraction of the rumored $30 million worth of maple syrup that was reported missing.

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Following a routine inventory check, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers noted as missing a large quantity of maple syrup held temporarily in the St-Louis-de-Blandford warehouse. An investigation has been placed with the Sureté du Québec (SQ) which immediately secured and began to monitor the area.

In collaboration with the SQ as well as an external auditing firm, the Federation is currently evaluating the scope of the situation. The empty barrels found on site suggest that their contents had been emptied into other containers in view of illegal distribution. In total, the burglarized warehouse held over 10 million pounds of maple syrup amounting to over 30 million dollars in value.

“The Federation always acts with caution to protect producers’ harvests. The St-Louis-de-Blandford warehouse had been secured by a fence and locks, and visited regularly,” said Serge Beaulieu, the President of the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. “The sales agency`s maple syrup inventory is spread across several storage locations which were not subject to theft.”

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The Le Centre de recherche, de développement et de transfert technologique acéricole du Québec (Le Centre ACER) and the Fédération des Producteurs Acéricoles du Québec (FPAQ) will receive up to $1.7 million from the federal Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) to research new market opportunities and develop a quality inspection system for Canadian maple products.

For five years, Quebec’s Maple Research Centre has been developing a machine that could taste test the product.

Human taste testers try sampling an average of 250 barrels of syrup a day. These machines would do the work for them by calculating how certain compounds in the syrup react to light.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering placing a levy on each Christmas trees sold in the United States, whether they were grown in the U.S. or whether they were imported.

The levy would be collected and would be used to promote the sale of real trees over artificial ones. The promotions would likely be seen on TV ads, billboards and other promotional campaigns in the U.S.

The levy is supported by the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association, including the Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia, and similar organizations in the U.S.

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The mild weather has sap flowing in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia for two weeks already.

Paul MacKenzie, of Highland Gold Maple Products, said he knew something was up in January and he starting tapping his trees two to three weeks earlier than normal.

MacKenzie said it usually takes 12 days to tap roughly 8,000 trees.

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Someone broke into a sugar shack in Quebec‘s Eastern Townships and made off with eight barrels of maple syrup containing about 15,000 litres, worth an estimated $16,000 to $18,000.

As the price of maple syrup has been increasing, so have the thefts of syrup and equipment.

Some syrup producers are bringing all their syrup home rather than leaving it in their shacks in the woods. Another producer told CBC News he has not only been locking his shack, he’s also been parking his pickup truck against the door.

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Nova Scotia was hoping for a great season for its Christmas Tree growers (see previous ForestTalk coverage).

Christmas Trees are a big business in Nova Scotia, and much of the growers’ income comes from the export of Christmas Trees.

This year the growers were hoping for a profitable season because the gas prices are down, and the exchange rate is in their favour. The weather was also mild this fall in Nova Scotia allowing many growers to harvest their Christmas Trees before the snow fell.

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Christmas trees are big business in Nova Scotia. It’s a $36 million dollar industry, with wreaths and greens generating another $5 million – plus the spin-offs in trucking, fuel and equipment involved in shipping and exporting the trees to the U.S.

This year is shaping up to be a great season for the 1500+ growers in the province.

“Last year we were hit bad: digging trees out of the snow, the dollar was down the tubes, diesel was way up and that drove wages and costs up,” he says. “This year, as soon as the season started to firm up, the dollar turned, fuels costs went down and we started making back the money we lost in the last few years,” said Black Rock grower Steve Bezanson.

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