SAVE THE OGOKI FOREST: Letter to the Ministry of Natural Resources

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Letter to the Ministry of Natural Resources

OGOKI FOREST 2008-2018 FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN
EBR # XB06E2005

MAY 2007

Submitted by: _____________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________

Heather Farrer, Co-Chair
Ogoki Forest Planning Team
MNR Geraldton Area Office
208 Beamish Avenue West,
P.O. Box 640
Geraldton, ON
P0T 1Mo

Tel: (807) 854-1816
Fax: (807) 854-0335
E-mail: heather.blackwell@ontario.ca

cc: Hon. David Ramsay
Minister of Natural Resources
Room 6630, Whitney Block
99 Wellesley St. West
Toronto, ON, M7A 1W3

Fax: 416-314-2216
email: minister@mnr.gov.on.ca

Dear Ms Farrer,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your staff for providing a venue and a process for voicing my concerns and preferences for forestry planning in the Ogoki Forest.

I believe that the Ogoki Forest is a unique heritage feature on the landscape and encompasses so many of the unique wilderness and recreation values that make it an exceedingly rare place in Ontario.

I feel strongly that the key to preserving our heritage lies in the successful preservation of all Historic Canoe Routes. I urge you to take all necessary action to secure the long-term protection of the Marshall Lake Canoe Route, particularly the area along the Kapikotongwa River, and ask that the entire route be established as an Enhanced Management Area (EMA) to ensure its canoeing enjoyment for generations to come. I am also deeply concerned about the further decline of wildlife species, particularly those species listed as endangered or at risk such as the woodland caribou, and request serious consideration be given to my attached recommendations.

I ask that you take this opportunity to carefully consider my input and incorporate wise resource, recreation planning and management decisions to preserve all routes across the Ogoki backcountry and to protect the woodland caribou from further decline and possible extinction.

The Ontario government must act now before the forest and our heritage is lost forever.

Sincerely,

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Take Action! Get Involved! Send your letter now to save the forest!

SAVE THE OGOKI FOREST!

It's not too late!

Newsflash: The Ogoki Forest Management Plan has now been drafted. The logging will continue unless you speak out.

The last and final stage of the process begins in March 10, 2008 and ends April 10, 2008. This stage permits anyone to file a request for independant environmental assessment with the Minister of the Environment.

Your action is required - the future of our forest depends on it!

Individual requests for Environmental Assessments must be received by April 10, 2008 and should be sent via courier to the following person:

Agatha Garcia-Wright

Director,
Environmental Assessments and Approvals
Ministry of the Environment
12A Floor2 St Clair Ave W

Toronto ON M4V1L5

Phone: 416-314-7288 Fax: 416-314-8452 Email: agatha.garciawright@ontario.ca

You can still make a difference. Details on the EBR process can be found by reviewing the following link:

Submitting an Individual Environmental Assessment is an opportunity to express your concern over ACTIVITIES related to the logging and harvest of wood in the Ogoki Forest. It is the last chance for the citizens of Ontario to make their concerns known since the planning strategy once finalized will not be revisited with the public again until 2018. The time is now - Write to the Ministry of the Environment about one or more of the following activities and the impact these activities have on the forest and the caribou.

http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MjcxNjg=&statusId=MjcxNjg=&language=en

For everyone who advocates for recreation and wildlife preservation this website is an impassioned plea for help!

Get all the facts on Ogoki by checking my blog role at the bottom of this section.

Below are two more links:

Microsoft Word (1.1 Mg file)
Ogoki_Forest.doc

PDF format.

Ogoki_Forest.pdf
__________________________________

Quick Facts:

Did you know that logging forests in Canada creates more global warming than all the passenger vehicles in the country?

For the complete report check out "Robbing the Carbon Bank" in the Links section of this blog.

Think caribou are being protected in Ontario- think again? In addition to sanctioning habitat destruction, did you know that the Ontario Government has only allocated $2.5 Million per year to the Species at Risk Initiative, but allocates $70 Million per year to the Fisheries and Game budget for which 40% is allocated for hunting alone and $400,000 per year is earmarked to exterminate commorants on Lake Huron.

For the full storey, check out Peaceful Parks Coalition website in the Links section of this blog (go to Campaigns >Hunt).

_________________________________

Can Bo Derek save the Caribou?

When the government announced new legislation to protect the habitat of endangered species, I dared to breathe a sigh of relief – the government it seems is finally taking notice. Even Bo Derek, Actress and activist ignited some buzz during a visit to Queen’s Park in July 2007 to speak about endangered and trafficked species and support the legislation that has been touted by Queen’s Park as the “gold standard” in North America.
Since the Woodland Caribou has a Threatened Status it falls under the provisions of Ontario’s new Endangered Species Act:

“If a species is listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List as an endangered or threatened species, the Bill prohibits damaging or destroying the habitat of the species.”

So now that the fanfare has died down and it’s business as usual at Queen’s Park - it begs the question - where exactly is the habitat for endangered species being protected and what if anything will this change for the caribou?

If the government has its way, Northern Ontario will continue to come under the axe this year when the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) plans to clear cut another 70,000 hectares (about the size of the city of Ottawa) in the Ogoki Forest.

Unless this logging is scaled back, caribou habitat is projected to fall by 57% over the next 100 years. I fear it’s going to take a lot more than a visit from Bo to save them. The MNR’s public inspection period ends March 2, 2008.

The Plight of the Caribou

Send your letter to the Ministry urging them to adopt the 2005 Audit Team recommendation in the 2008-2018 Ogoki Forest Management Plan which states:

“The Audit Team believes the Ministry must provide strong objective evidence that the decline in habitat will not further endanger caribou and recommends that the Ministry conduct an objective assessment of the viability of the caribou population on the Forest, and that the results of the assessment be incorporated into subsequent forest management plans.

The Ministry’s Caribou guidelines state “Habitat tracts in the 60 to 80 year range can be counted on to provide winter habitat and tracts greater than 80 years of age can be considered as prime habitat”. Caribou NEED old growth forest yet the Caribou Mosaic model predicts that within 100 years, the Forest will be much younger than it is at present, with the average age declining from approximately 106 years to a future average age of about 50 years.

The Audit Team has expressed grave concern over the projected marked decline in caribou winter habitat and advises that implementation of the mosaic as intended will result in a 57% decline in caribou habitat over the next 100 years from a present level of approximately 234,000 ha to approximately 101,000 ha by 2103 and further states the decline is largely a function of the Forest becoming regulated by the caribou mosaic, so that at any time, about 2-3 sets of blocks are suitable as caribou winter habitat.

The Caribou Mosaic

The premise of this approach is that caribou are adapted to large natural disturbances and need large unbroken tracts of forest for some aspects of their life cycle and; caribou are sensitive to human disturbance so by managing the forest to emulate large disturbances, large areas of the forest will be free from human disturbances for long periods of time.

In lay terms Guidelines for Conservation of Woodland Caribou rationalizes exceptionally large clearcuts (10,000 ha or more) for the purposes of ensuring a continuous supply of future areas of caribou habitat.

One of the major risks to clear cutting using the Caribou Mosaic is that by allowing large contiguous blocks of landscape to be harvested we increase our overall areas of depletion when adjacent blocks of intact forest are lost through wildfire. As part of an FMP modeling exercise, the “natural” rate of fire loss is a critical variable, and it is one that is contentious.

The use of the caribou mosaic has created considerable controversy. This approach has brought attention to the fact that clear cutting is the predominant harvesting system used in the Forests (as it is in all boreal units in Ontario), raising concerns over the ecological impacts of clear cutting. The major problem with the Caribou Mosaic is there is no evidence that it will actually benefit the species. In fact the opposite is true. The 2005 Audit Team acknowledges this with the following statements:

“…the long-term result of management of the Forest will be a significant decline in the amount of “mature and old forest”, and this will negatively impact species such as woodland caribou, which depend on mature and old coniferous forest for winter habitat…It is imperative that the best science be applied in a conservative manner so as to maximize the likelihood that caribou will continue to be viable on the Ogoki Forest. “

The Impacts of Clear Cutting on the Recreational User

Clear cutting has significant impacts on the recreational user. Of particular concern is the canoeist who relies on traversable portage routes to navigate interconnecting water routes. The Ogoki Forest has been subject to the clear cutting timber extraction system since 1996 when the first Forest Management Plan for the region was architected. In the past, forestry companies have routinely cut down portages without leaving any trails. Once these portages are cut, the ability to travel over land is further encumbered by muddy trails littered with tree stumps.

most of the Ogoki Forest will be harvested in clearcuts larger than 10,000 ha (10,000 ha is about the size of 4000 football fields).

What is an Environmental Assessment?

An environmental assessment:
- identifies possible environmental effects
- proposes measures to mitigate adverse effects
- predicts whether there will be significant adverse environmental effects, even after the mitigation is implemented

What is the purpose of environmental assessment?

There are two main purposes of environmental assessment:
- minimize or avoid adverse environmental effects before they occur
- incorporate environmental factors into decision making

From the EBR Website (EBR Registry Number: XB06E2005 ):

During the 30-day inspection period, commencing February 1, 2008 and ending March 2, 2008, any person may make a written request to the Director of Environmental Assessment Approvals Branch, Ministry of the Environment, for an individual environmental assessment of specific proposed forest management activities in the forest management plan. A response to a request for an individual environmental assessment will normally be provided after the completion of the 30-day inspection period.

SAVE THE OGOKI FOREST

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Letter to the Ministry of Natural Resources

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Take Action! Get Involved! Send your letter now to save the forest!

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