Several years ago the MNRF…

Several years ago the MNRF authorized the use of Bio Fuel for the St. Mary's Paper Mill in Sault Ste. Marie Ontario (Algoma District) and as such a Logger was selected to harvest the Bio Fuel which he did to great effect. Huge swaths of forest were cut and piled along side of logging roads and then mulched prior to bringing the mixture to the St. Mary's Paper Mill for burning. It was a great process because dead trees and left over slash from previous logging operations were taken as well and used in this process, which in my opinion nicely cleaned up the forest. As well, left over mulch could be allowed to remain in place to be absorbed by the environment.

The problem that happened early on was that the Paper Mill went bankrupt and as a result large amounts of trees or Bio Fuel were left behind stacked in huge long piles about 10ft in height that went on for kilometer upon kilometer. It was an environmental shame and an eye sore that still exists and is still visible to this day. After the plants closure the Logger had no choice but to walk away from any clean up and as such these piles and piles of dead trees are still there and un-used, presenting not only an environment issue but an extreme fire hazard. I would have liked to have seen these large amounts of dead trees be mulched so that this huge mass of perfectly good Bio Fuel could have been better absorbed into the environment instead of just sitting there rotting for the past several years or better still be mulched and sent to other regional wood processing plants to be used in their heating or kiln drying processes. Even though, in this instance, the Provincial government has changed, the Bio Fuel environmental issue that I speak of still exists today simply because I believe that the MNRF's policy and plan has not changed nor has it been updated to take into account and address this kind of issue. From what I know this problem exists throughout the District of Algoma, from the forest North East of Sault Ste. Marie as in the Searchmont area, to as far North as to the Wawa area, where it seems to be much more prevalent.

In any new forth coming plan I think that there should be a contingency that would allow excess un-used trees or mulched Bio Fuel be used elsewhere. At the very least any un-used trees in the process should be mulched into a Bio Mass, put back into the environment, and allowed to be absorbed. These days I don't think anyone wants to see huge swaths of forest completely clear cut and the trees then piled high for as far as the eye can see and then be allowed to sit un-used to rot for years upon years. All of this just does not make good business or environmental sense to me and so I would like to see some safe guards put in place and written into any new Forest Management Plan for Bio Fuel that would prevent this type of situation from occurring again sometime in the future.

**Pictures available upon request