Logging Foes Rekindle Temagami Dispute; New Minister Urged to Probe
Clear-Cut Plan
7/9/99
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Title: Logging Foes Rekindle Temagami Dispute; New Minister Urged to
Probe Clear-Cut Plan
Source: Toronto Star
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: July 9, 1999
Byline: Caroline Mallan
An environmental group is calling on the Ontario government to launch an
environmental assessment of large-scale clear-cutting plans approved for
the sensitive Temagami region.
Earthroots, the group that led blockades in 1989 and 1996 against
logging of ancient trees in Temagami, said yesterday that clear-cutting
plans approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources could endanger the
ecosystem in the area.
Lea Ann Mallett of Earthroots told a news conference one clear-cutting
plan would log more than four times the amount of land set out in
government guidelines. She called upon newly appointed Environment
Minister Tony Clement to halt the logging until an assessment is
complete.
``At this point, what we are doing is sounding the alarm on the larger
clear-cuts issue in Temagami,'' Mallett said. ``We see it as a trend
that's going to spread across Northern Ontario in terms of forest
management planning.''
But a spokesperson for Natural Resources Minister John Snobelen said the
government by law must develop logging plans that closely resemble
forest destruction which could have been caused naturally by forest fire
and disease.
In Temagami, using historical data as a guide, that meant that in 19
different sites the clear cuts will be larger than the government
guideline of 260 hectares of logging.
``When we do forestry management planning, there is a requirement that
we emulate natural disturbances,'' said Ryan Sword of Snobelen's office.
Sword said the Temagami forest management plan is the result of a
lengthy public process that includes environmental groups and local
residents.
``This is not a process designed to satisfy the needs of the forest
industry,'' he said, noting 35 per cent of Temagami, including 44 per
cent of the old-growth trees in the area, is protected from all logging.
Mallett said her group was so concerned about the larger clear cuts that
it would not rule out another lengthy protest in the forest but her
first option was to ask Clement to investigate the plan.
During the 1989 protest, former NDP premier Bob Rae, who was in
opposition at the time, was arrested for his role in the anti-logging
demonstration, which drew public support.
Despite the limit set in 1994 of 260 hectares per single clear-cut, the
newly released Natural Resources plan for the forest has approved one
clear cut of more than 1,300 hectares.
Mallett said the ministry's reasoning that the larger clear cut is not
dissimilar to the natural disturbance of forest fires is ``ridiculous.''
Comparing the culling done as a result of fires with the impact of
commercial logging makes no sense to Kyle Ferguson, an Earthroots
campaigner. ``Creating larger clear cuts in the name of ecological
science is irresponsible at best.''
``One of the big problems we have had with industrial forestry in
northern Ontario is the creation of roads,'' Mallett said. ``When you
create roads, people start to use them. When people start to use them,
there's impact on the ecosystem, impact on wildlife.
``None of those things has any kind of relationship to natural fire (in
a forest).''