Opposition to the government’s new Crown forest strategy has been emphatic from academics, foresters, First Nations, private woodlot owners, ecologists, conservationists, and from those who consider the plan to be shortsighted and benefitting the forest industry.
A survey conducted by the University of New Brunswick shows that a majority of New Brunswickers oppose the Crown Forest Strategy announced by the provincial government in March 2014. The survey, conducted May 16 to May 23 by Oracle Poll on behalf of researchers at UNB’s Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, shows opposition to the Strategy is three times greater than those supporting the policy. Sixty-one percent strongly oppose or oppose the policy, compared to 20% who strongly support or support.
In addition to questions exploring public opinion regarding the Crown Forest Strategy, the five-question survey repeated two questions from a 2007 survey conducted by a team of university and federal social scientists. The 2007 results are consistent with these new results and suggest that support for public consultation and conservation are core values of New Brunswickers.
Eighty-seven percent of respondents agreed with the statement that citizens, experts, communities and the legislature should be consulted before any long-term, binding agreements are made with the forest industry. “Much of the criticism of the government strategy has to do with the lack of public consultation that went into it,” said Dr. Beckley, principle author of the survey. “These results are as much about democratic process as they are about the details of the forest policy.”
The provincial Government’s proposed Crown Forest Strategy takes a new approach to Crown land management. It gives timber allocations to industry priority over conservation management. New Brunswickers, however, favour a conservation first approach. “About 80 percent of respondents believe that we should look after conservation first and give timber allocations to industry from the remaining available land,” said Dr. Beckley. “Only 11 percent of respondents said that timber allocations to industry should be made first, with conservation targets determined from the available remaining Crown land.”
In both the 2007 and the 2014 survey, New Brunswickers said that management priority should first go to protecting soil, air and water resources; secondly to habitat to look after plant and animal life. Non-timber products received the lowest priority in both surveys.
The public’s skepticism of the forest industry’s impact and influence has grown moderately since the 2007 survey. There was an increase of five percent of respondents agreeing with the statement that the amount of timber cut in New Brunswick is too high (63% agree in 2014, compared to 58% in 2007). A similar five percent increase occurred for the statement, “The forest industry has too much control over forest management in New Brunswick. Sixty-two percent of New Brunswickers agree with that statement in 2014, compared to 57 percent in 2007.
The survey also tackled some critical issues regarding policy process. Respondents were split on whether governments should be allowed to enter long-term binding contracts with industry on behalf of the public – 41 percent agreed that they should be able, compared to 37 percent that disagreed. However, the public does not agree that those contracts should bind the hands of future governments. By nearly a two to one margin, respondents disagreed that it is okay for governments to enter into contracts that bind future governments.
Dr. Beckley concluded, “Crown land makes up 50 percent of the area of the province. It is a public trust, managed by government for the citizens of New Brunswick. The results from this survey suggest the public feels their trust was violated and that the things they value most about Crown forests are given short shrift in the new plan.”
Ken Hardie, manager of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners said many woodlot owners were “flabbergasted” by the plan when it was first announced in March, saying there would be few, if any, benefits for private suppliers with so much additional wood coming from crown lands. The forest strategy says that an additional 250,000 cubic metres of wood will be needed from private woodlots, but Hardie says there is a lot of skepticism about the figure. “To this day, nobody has been able to explain to us in detail where that number came from.”
Hardie said that last year private woodlots provided 12% of the total wood supply in the province. He said that is a far cry from the much larger amounts, as much as 30%, in earlier years.
J.D. Irving said it intends to purchase 9% more wood from private woodlot owners and wood producers than it did last year. As well, AV Nackawic and AV Cell say they want to purchase 200,000 additional metric tons of fibre from private woodlot owners in the fiscal year ahead.
The CBC says that academics and environmentalists have raised objections from the outset, with a major concern being the conservation forest, which is off-limits to industry, is being reduced to 23 per cent of the Crown land in the forest, down from the current level of 28%.
Eel Ground First Nation Chief George Ginnish fears changes to forest policy in New Brunswick will impact on the deer and moose populations that some aboriginal people rely on for sustenance.
“We would be concerned about sustainability,” said Ginnish on CBC Information Morning in Fredericton. “We would be concerned about biodiversity. We would be concerned about the [impact] these changes have on the deer, on the moose, which provide a basic sustenance to many of our members.”
Over time, the new plan will see the makeup of New Brunswick’s Crown forest change, with the amount of mature stands of forest being reduced to 10 per cent from the current share of 26 per cent, according to the Department of Natural Resources. In 50 years, it is forecast 21% of the Crown forest would be softwood plantation, up from the present-day share of 12%.
“If over time, the shift from an Acadian-type forest to a new type of harvest that is primarily focused on ‘Let’s grow timber quick,’ then absolutely it’s going to impact,” said Ginnish. “That impacts us. You’re basically changing the makeup of the province to suit industry and I don’t think that’s a good move.”
“Unfortunately, our concerns haven’t been taken seriously,” said Ginnish. “As it is with many files, it’s ‘Bear with us’, ‘We’re working on it’, ‘We think we can get that into the process,’” he said. “But our issues are met with indifference.
“The real accommodation is made for the larger players. Once again, we find ourselves pretty much entirely out of the loop,” said Ginnish. “Because our concerns may not line up with where the province sees the industry going, it falls on deaf ears, it’s not accommodated.”
What’s not being said is that forests are a great natural means to capture and sequester CO2 to mitigate climate change. The Crown forest provides government the opportunity to set responsible conditions for a sustainable forest management policy that stops clear-cutting practices while allowing the forestry sector to make a living in a diverse natural forests using select harvesting and thinning practices that promote better growth and biodiversity.
A well-managed, long-term Acadian forest economy can regenerate a healthier forest and habitat while provide for the needs of all. But turning the management of much of the Crown land over to the forest industry to grow more tree plantations for years to come is likely to become a very costly mistake for the next generations to repair.
Sam Arnold is a member of the Woodstock Sustainable Energy Group.