I would like to comment on…

I would like to comment on the wording of the regulations pertaining to threatened species.
I am a farmer and landowner, and I have seen a few species of birds on my land over the years. I would think many of the species at risk are on private land in Ontario. Some species thrive in some agriculture ecosytems. I see Bobolinks and Ellis sparrows and they reproduce well in grass hay fields that resemble the native prairie grasslands.

I pride myself that over thirty years the populations have increased here.
But as a farmer, I cringe when reading the regulations. As a farmer nearing retirement I would never call the biologists at the MNR and tell them I have threatened species on my land. I told my wife I was going to comment on this forum and she looked at me as if I had lost my mind. I said there a few things that are bothering me and would like to see the world a little better place than when we came into it. I feel most farmers are like that, but economics are also a reality.

When the wording of the regulations indicate that "habitat will be protected" it indicates that a farmer could lose control of her property and most farmers have all their retirement plans based on their farm value. The regulations indicate that if the farmer is enrolled in an Ontario Enviromental Farm plan, there could be compensation but in reality those small compensations mean nothing when farmland is in the $5,000 to $20,000 per acre market and a protected area could involve 30 or 40 acres in a middle of a farm. Retiring farmers need that asset for health care costs, drug costs, hospital care, or old age care facilities. Farmers don't have pensions or benefits.

That is not to say that farmers would not protect these species. I think they would, especially if biologists educated them and they did not feel threatened by provincial regulations.

Now I have some other points that possibly may sound very unlike a farmer. As I read the list od plant species on the threatened list, I saw many I had never heard of. But to be honest I never looked in my woods when I walk through it. They could be there, but who knows? No one told me. How many species are threatened because land owners don't know about them? Today farmers are clearing many woodlots and fence rows that could contain these species...who know? Perhaps there should be a permit system for clearing land, and biologists should first inspect the forested area before permits are given.

There are land holding companies in my area clearing thousands of acres of land. The land is then rented to large cash croppers who also tear up the old hay fields that fed beef cattle for decades. These are fields where the Bobolink hatched young. There is a problem here, and I'm sure you can see it. The large land holding companies are often pension funds and wealthy share holders from outside of Ontario. They rent the land to a farmer and get 75% rebate on property taxes.

Another problem is that the large land companies are getting a huge tax break from Revenue Canada to clear the land under Farm Improvements that are not capitalized, but treated as an expense in the year the land owner wishes to use it to decrease a large non farm income. It can be used 100% or held back for decades. It definitely is a benefit to wealthy investors to clear forest.

For instance I have an older widow that owns a 60 acres behind my home farm. It was basically unimproved land that a few Sandhill Cranes hatch young each year on. Migrating Sandhill cranes are drawn to them and approximately 5,000 cranes land on our farms here. I've never asked her to sell it to me because to be frank, I'm nearing retirement age myself. I have ten acres of Boreal forest next to forty acres of her Boreal forest. It has bears and Timber Wolves travel through it because it is a corridor for wildlife. But she is facing a municipal drain cost and I suspect she will sell the land to pay the cost despite she is not benefiting from the drain. The land companies will buy that land and it will be cleared in a week. I can protect my ten acres but it will no longer be a corridor for wildlife which is sad.

I hope I gave a few insights.