As a participant of one of…

As a participant of one of the Minister Round Table sessions last spring I am pleased to see positive movements on what was presented. All four items are relevant and positive. I am also pleased to see that other ER postings have been placed for commenting that reflect some of the tenants of this Forest Sector Strategy. Thank you to this government for actually listening to the concerns of forestry practitioners and taking steps to address those concerns.

While I am supportive of most or all of the items in this Forest Sector Strategy I wish to point out that it will take some investments by the government and there needs to be a return for MNRF to better deliver on components that have been largely ignored or underfunded for the last 15+ years.

The strategy talks about science and growth and yield. These are two items that have been underfunded and understaffed for some years now. Ontario used to have a world class growth and yield program yet re-measurement of plots are well behind schedule and available data has not been processed to the extent required. As indicated by MNRF staff, this is particularly true for the GLSL region. Climate change, changes in harvesting systems and processes and new pests such as beech bark disease all are major influences on stand growth and yield that, at least in the GLSL, were very different than the 1990s when the growth and yield program was developed.

Similarly, MNRF has stepped away from science. Some higher level science has occurred through the ONtario Forest Research Institute which is to be commended but the regional level science units like the science and transfer unit that used to exist in North Bay has been completely abandoned through the last governments transformation initiative. This initiative has reduced regional level science advice to one of literature reviews instead of working in the field with forest managers to come up with solutions to management challenges.

Lastly, although this government has taken huge steps in remote sensing efforts for improved forest inventories, there are many pieces of the inventory challenge puzzle that remain unknown.

Without a good inventory and a good understanding of forest growth in today's forests and science to support management decisions, large parts of the strategy aimed to improve wood utilization in the province will go unrealized or will proceed with the type of uncertainty that makes investments unattractive.

With these 3 points in mind, I am very supportive of the direction that this strategy seems to be headed and it is refreshing to see government actually listen and follow through. We just need to get the details and support correct.