Waterloo Region Nature is a…

Waterloo Region Nature is a naturalist club of nearly 200 members serving the cities of Cambridge, Waterloo, and Kitchener, and the townships of Wilmot, Woolwich, North Dumfries, and Wellesley. We call Waterloo Region home and are pleased to sponsor activities about any aspect of nature for adults, youth and children.
Waterloo Region Nature (WRN) strongly recommends that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry immediately stop planning to amend the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, 1994. We urge the government to take more time to understand the legislative history behind the effort to reconcile protection and recovery of forest dependent at risk species with timber harvesting on public lands. The proposed approach runs contrary to the Ontario government’s commitments to address biodiversity decline and act on climate change.
The proposed draft forest sector strategy seeks to double the amount of forest logged to 30 million cubic meters. This represents an increase of 15 million ha of forest to be logged over time, without a plan for species at risk, communities or ensuring a safe climate. Current logging levels are already hampering opportunities for habitat protection. In the face of the global climate emergency, we need to be reducing the industrial footprint. Many species are experiencing unprecedented and unpredictable habitat disruption and need more space to adapt. Scientists have directly linked excessive consumption of the world’s resources to the climate crisis, and are calling for increased protection and restoration of our ecosystems, including remaining primary forests. The government is leading us in the wrong direction.

The strategy also completely ignores the link between habitat fragmentation and species decline. In its proposal to further subsidize and expand the logging road network, it misses the opportunity to use those tax dollars to incentivize actions which better address the legacy of these roads and slash piles, and increase habitat restoration efforts. Subsidies to forestry companies for building and maintaining logging roads have been costing the public approximately $60 million per year, totaling more than half a billion dollars between 2005 and 2015
The draft strategy is a document purported to “unleash the potential” of the forest industry consistent with the stated priorities of the government to “reduce red tape”, “create prosperity” and “ensure Ontario is open for business”. The proposed changes to the CFSA are not in the best interests of the people of Ontario, and while it may be in the best interests of the forest industry in the short term, it will not be so in the long term. It would see Ontario reneging on its commitments at the Provincial, National, and International levels to sustain biodiversity and to properly execute sustainable forest management.
“Reducing regulatory burdens for industry to access wood” and creating investments in forest access roads are two goals of the proposal that are contrary to maintaining and increasing biodiversity and natural habitats. At a time when we need to support more habitat conservation, pushing the sector to double its impact makes no sense. We want you to support the industry in ways that don’t foreclose opportunities for your government to leave a conservation legacy that benefits all of the people of Ontario. Locking down unused wood for one forest stakeholder won’t achieve that.
Without seeing the government address the issues raised above, WRN members strongly oppose the proposal to double the amount of industrial logging in Ontario. We need a sustainable, forward-looking strategy for managing our forests that honours our commitments to address biodiversity loss while supporting northern communities. We do not need a strategy designed to further limit conservation opportunities.