March 5th, 2018…

March 5th, 2018

Public Input Coordinator

Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry

Policy Divisi to re- has served Ontario well in providing landscape-level, bio-diverse habitat for all species, including species at risk, while balancing other social and environmental objectives. In contrast, we remain concerned with the potential impacts to the long-term sustainability of our Crown forests under the unbalanced direction of the ESA.

The ESA is an Act that protects individual species and individuals of species with onerous and unneeded no-cut restrictions. This is potentially at the expense of healthy populations of SAR, other wildlife species, and desired long-term forest composition targets, resulting in unanticipated changes to long-term forest structures. Unlike the ESA, the CFSA is better suited to balanced approaches, adaptive management, and has been proven to be flexible and implementable and to support innovation. We are concerned that the current ESA approach may be short-sighted and contrary to the intent of the CFSA and forest-level sustainability.

As Stated in the Forest Information Manual:

“Preparation and implementation of forest management plans in accordance with the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, 1994 is a shared responsibility among forest resource licence holders and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.”

As licensed professionals, we wish to continue this partnership of jointly managing Ontario’s Crown forests. We urge your government to finalize EBR Registry Number 013-1669, extend the regulation for 5-years, and establish an independent panel to develop a long-term approach addressing species at risk and their habitat requirements in Crown forest management.

We look forward to ongoing conversation on this important topic.

Sincerely,

*ORGINIAL INCLUDES 50 R.P.F. SEALS AND SIGNATURES*

[Original Comment ID: 213315]