Tag Archives: Ontario

The province of Ontario is retaining the forest reserve status for the Wolf Lake Old Growth Forest in the Timiskaming District.

This decision is aimed at protecting the environment and giving clarity to developers, while prohibiting the commercial harvesting of old growth red pine.

Most industrial activities, such as forestry, are prohibited under the Forest Reserve designation, with the exception of mineral exploration and development on existing mining claims and leases.

An Environmental Registry posting was made in June 2011 to consult on the future use of the Wolf Lake Forest Reserve. The decision to maintain Forest Reserve status is based on the feedback received through the posting.

“We are taking a balanced approach to support the economic development of the North while protecting environmental treasures like the Wolf Lake Forest Reserve. We have provided significant support to Ontario’s mining industry and we will continue to do so in the future.”

– Michael Gravelle, Ontario Minister of Natural Resources

Of the original 4,099 hectares Wolf Lake Forest Reserve, approximately 40% was added to Chiniguichi Waterway Provincial Park after existing mining rights expired.

Source: Government of Ontario

The government should do more to oversee private-sector forest companies to make sure they do an adequate job of successfully reforesting areas where timber has been harvested, Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter says in his 2011 Annual Report.

“The forest industry is an important employer and economic driver, particularly in the north,” McCarter said today following the release of the Report. “The government must make sure that forest management companies are adequately replanting and tending forests so they are renewed as a resource for future generations.”

McCarter added that such oversight “is especially critical given that forests take upwards of 70 years to re-grow so these companies have little immediate financial incentive to carry out appropriate reforestation activities.”

In 2009, overall employment in the forest industry was estimated at 166,000 jobs, and the value of its products at $12 billion. However, the industry has experienced a significant decline in recent years following the rise in value of the Canadian dollar and the economic downturn in the United States.

The Auditor’s significant findings include the following:

• In the 2008/09 fiscal year, the licensed forest companies that reported results of their forest management activities indicated that 93% of the total area that had been assessed by the companies met the province’s minimum 40% stocking standard—but only 51% of the total area assessed had achieved silviculture success, a measure of whether the appropriate trees have grown back.
• The Ministry of Natural Resources’ standard for reforesting of 40% has not changed since the 1970s, and several other provinces hold the industry to a higher standard.
• From the 2004/05 to 2008/09 fiscal years, only about one-third of the area targeted for regeneration was prepared and/or subsequently tended by forest management companies. Several independent forest audits completed in 2008 and 2009 expressed concern about non-existent or inadequate tending practices that were leading to reductions in growth, yield, and stand densities.

Source: Ontario Auditor General

Ball Packaging, former owner of Marathon‘s pulp and paper mill, Ontario, and the federal government, will be paying to clean-up Lake Superior’s Peninsula Harbour near Marathon, Ontario this spring.

The clean-up will improve water quality and help ensure the health of the harbour’s natural habitat by capping leftover waste from past polluters. This is the last step in the plan to restore the harbour to a safe, healthy state.

“This is good news for Marathon, and good news for the Great Lakes. The funding Ontario has secured from the former mill owner, together with our own funding, and our collaboration with the federal government is going to help us restore the health of this ecosystem.”

– Michael Gravelle, Ontario Minister of Natural Resources

Peninsula Harbour was designated an Area of Concern in 1987. The area includes the Marathon waterfront and extends four kilometres into Lake Superior. An area of concern is defined as an area where the environment has been harmed, resulting in problems that may include: beach closures; loss of fish and wildlife habitat; negative effects on fish and wildlife populations; restrictions on fish consumption; and effects on drinking water.

The federal government will coordinate the contracts and work to finish the sediment capping. Work is expected to begin this spring and be completed in the fall.

Source: Government of Ontario

2011 was a busy fire season for Ontario.

Ontario experienced 1,330 fires affecting 632,533 hectares.

Much of the area burned in Ontario in 2011 was due to a handful of very large fires. In fact, 2011 saw the largest fire recorded in Ontario history—Sioux Lookout 70 at 141,000 hectares. Another fire, Sioux Lookout 35, reached 112,000 hectares to become the eighth-largest fire on record. These two fires alone accounted for approximately 40 per cent of the total area burned. This is the first time since 1980 that Ontario has had two individual fires of greater than 100,000 hectares in the same season.

As an exceptional fire season draws to a close, Ontario offers its sincere thanks to all the men and women who assisted in 2011. Successfully addressing the many challenging fires this season required teamwork, flexibility and tireless effort. All personnel, whether they were from Ontario, other Canadian provinces and territories, Parks Canada or the United States, demonstrated these qualities. The final fires of 2011 will soon smoulder out but the bonds of friendship and cooperation between Ontario and its friends and neighbours continue on.

Read more: Ontario’s 2011 Forest Fire Summary (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources)

In September 2009, the Government of Ontario removed the role of Forestry from its Ministry of Natural Resources and realigned the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines to include Forestry. The resulting Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry was described by the government as being an important realignment to “make the province more competitive, create jobs and strengthen our economy.”

Today the Government of Ontario reshuffled its cabinet, and changed its mind. Forestry has been moved back into the Ministry of Natural Resources. Re-elected Premier Dalton McGuinty said his new cabinet will “guide Ontario through an uncertain global economy by focusing on job creation and economic growth.”

Ontario northerners are pleased to see that the MPP for Thunder Bay – Superior North, Michael Gravelle, has been appointed as Minister of Natural Resources.

An emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) has been found in a trap just 6km south of Bruce County in southern Ontario.

Until a beetle is officially found in the twin counties of Grey and Bruce, the counties will consider themselves “unaffected” – for now. Although Doug Kraemer of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency‘s Walkerton office does say that realistically, the highly-destructive emerald ash borer could already be in the area.

“It can take three to five years from the initial infestation until we see any signs,” Kraemer said.

Once a beetle is found in an area, the federal government designates the entire county it’s in as a regulated, infested area, Kraemer said. Quarantine rules, primarily dealing with the movement of ash trees, firewood and lumber, are put into place and enforced.

Much of southern Ontario is now considered a regulated zone, including all counties south of and including Huron, Wellington, Peel, York and Durham.

The emerald ash borer attacks and kills all species of ash, except mountain ash which is not a true ash.

Read more:
Invasive bug moving closer to Grey-Bruce (The Sun Times)

More information about the Emerald Ash Borer:
Emerald Ash Borer – Agrilus planipennis (Canadian Food Inspection Agency)
Emerald Ash Borer
Toronto’s ash tree removal plans

Don and Donna Kowaluk live in a rural, agricultural area of southern Ontario, near Strathroy.

About 15 years ago, 22,500 trees were planted on the Kowaluk’s property.

Last winter, the Kowaluk’s decided to turn their land back into agricultural land.

They had half the acreage harvested when the woodlands conservation officer of their county placed stop-work orders on their tree-cutting.

As it turns out, the county views the tree-cutting as a clear-cut, even though the land is zoned agricultural.

“I cannot allow . . . to have more woodlots taken out of the structure of Middlesex County,” said Deputy Mayor Vance Blackmore of Southwest Middlesex.

Middlesex County requires landowners to request permission to cut down their trees, and have fined the couple $400/acre (about $3,000) for the trees they have already cut down. The money will go to the county’s tree fund.

The County has also denied permission for the landowners to continue cutting the rest of the trees.

The County Council was clearly annoyed by the Kowaluk’s decision to cut down their trees. Middlesex Centre Mayor Al Edmondson said $400 barely covers the cost to replace a mature tree, let alone an acre of young trees. “It seems like $400 is an insult because it invites people to cut down trees with minimal penalty,” he said.

Planner Steve Evans noted there was little option to prosecute this case under the county’s Woodlands Conservation bylaw because there was no way to prove when the trees were cut down or by whom.

Just up the road from the Kowaluk’s, another landowner has partially cut his 25 acre property that was planted with conifers in 1979. Stop work orders have also been placed on the cut, and now lawyers for the owner are appealing the County’s orders.

Read more:
County council cuts down clear-cut requests (London Free Press)

20 new fires were reported in the province of Ontario on Thursday August 18, most of them caused by lightning in both the northeast and the northwest regions of Ontario. Numerous lightning fires showing up are consistent with recent precipitation being mostly scattered and localized; there are dry pockets of high hazards throughout the province.

So far this year 953 fires have burned a total of 618,187 hectares of forest in Ontario.

There are 111 fires actively burning in the province today. Fire activity will be moderate to high as wind speeds increase with the passage of another cold front. Extensive lightning will continue in the Northwest and make its way across the province. Current fires are reporting depths of burn between 10 to 20 centimeters into the ground.

Ontario appreciates the support of resources from other parts of Canada. Assistance, in the form of fire fighters, equipment and aircraft has come from several provinces and Parks Canada. Over the weekend close to 250 fire fighters and overhead staff are scheduled to return home and currently, there are no plans to recruit more out of province resources. Today 433 fire personnel from other provinces are helping with Ontario’s fire fighting effort.

Ontario has arranged for Manitoba and Quebec to be available for quick strike water bombing if help is needed over the next several days. Essentially, quick strike is when another province’s water bomber drops water on Ontario fires near the provincial border and then returns to their home base.

Read more:
Current Fire Situation – August 19, 2011 (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources)

Fighting Ontario’s forest fires has already cost about $107 million this year.

This number is expected to increase over the next few weeks, with the end of the fire season in October.

“Because of the nature of this year’s fire situation, Ontario has borrowed a significant amount of resources, such as firefighters, equipment and aircraft from other provinces and states,” provincial fire information officer Art Osborne said. “Ontario will eventually pay for those borrowed resources and those costs have been factored into our cost estimates to date.”

Ontario’s Forest Fire Update

Fire behaviour conditions were low on Friday August 12 and will remain moderate for the period of August 13-14. Light winds will limit the spread of any new fires. Unseasonably warm temperatures and falling humidity is expected in the latter part of the weekend which may cause a spike in fire arrivals during the early part of the coming week.

Significant resources remained engaged on large fires within the province. Considerable movement of out of province staff is now taking place. Fire fighters (99 staff) returned to British Columbia on August 12. A new contingent of 98 personnel from British Columbia are scheduled to arrive Saturday August 13, while 100 crew members from eastern Canada are departing on the same date. Previously, an additional three 20-person crews from Quebec and Nova Scotia were slated to arrive on August 14 but this request has now been cancelled.

Ontario remains extremely grateful to all the men and women from within the province and from other jurisdictions who have assisted during this challenging fire season so far.

Sources:
Fire by the dollars (TbNewsWatch)
Current Fire Situation (Government of Ontario)

Current Status of Fires:

Current number of fires burning in Ontario: 111
Hectares covered by fire, to date: 493,000

Cloud cover and some precipitation over parts of Northwestern Ontario slowed the fires growth somewhat but 11 new fires were detected. High winds in the southern part of the area of concern did cause some extreme fire behaviour. Today’s weather forecast calls for cloud cover and some precipitation in the area of concern, clearing later in the day. A relatively quiet fire day with little smoke issues is expected. However, multiple fire starts are expected to occur over the next few days from thunderstorm activity.

Update on Evacuations:

Yesterday’s planned evacuations from multiple communities are completed. Evacuees were transported to Thunder Bay or Toronto and then moved to host locations including Greenstone, Mooseonee, Marathon, Ignace, and Ottawa. The number of evacuees to date is 3400. There are currently no evacuations planned for today. The MNR, EMO, and other partner agencies will continue to execute evacuations as needed and quickly and safely as possible.

Firefighting Capability:

Currently, there are over 2000 fire personnel engaged on Ontario fires. Of this 2000, 621 are from out of province. Provinces providing Ontario with firefighting resources include British Columbia, Yukon, Saskatchewan, Alberta, New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba, and Newfoundland/ Labrador. Firefighting equipment being used today includes 17 heavy bombers, 4 light bombers, 90+ helicopters and other support aircraft.

More Information:
Ontario Current Fire Situation
To see where the fires are burning
The latest from EMO