While it is understood that…

While it is understood that protecting SAR, and in this case woodland caribou, is an important goal in Ontario and elsewhere, we need to ensure that we do not have blinders on and require actions and processes that are in well in excess of the benefits that they are likely to produce. Woodland caribou issue is a unique SAR in Ontario for many reasons - very large landscape requirements that overlap with other SAR that require different habitats, diverse range of opinions of caribou vs moose habitat amongst Indigenous communities, climate change pressures that influence the future of caribou potentially more than land use and potential direct sensitivity to pressures on habitat from logging.

I particularly hope, however, that this approach with caribou does not become a template for the many other SAR in the Province of Ontario. This would be unworkable, put significant socio-economic pressures on forest industry and the communities they support at very little benefit given that forestry has, at worst, minor impacts on these species. For instance, the potential impacts of forestry on turtles is a VERY low risk of death or injury due to equipment occupying the same time and space as a turtle. In relationship to other pressures, this risk represents a miniscule threat to the species. Landscape guide and stand and site guide direction in forest management on Crown land provide for a diverse forest now and into the future to protect against loss or untenable changes to habitat. SAR snakes, whip-poor-will, American ginseng are species that would not benefit from a similar approach being employed for the conservation agreement. Doing so would be at great detriment to the health of struggling forestry companies with negligible reward beyond policy already provides.