[Truro, NS]—A Truro (Nova Scotia) woodlot owner sees potential changes in the industry as further indication of forestry crisis.
"There are such drastic changes," Jim Verboom, who owns 55 acres of woodland, told the Truro Daily News at the Federation of Nova Scotia Woodland Owners annual general meeting in Truro Saturday (June 5).
"The markets are turning around for the better but the land base is being taken out of circulation."
About nine years ago Verboom lost the usage of 12 per cent of his woodlot and now he's potentially facing more loss due to a riparian rule.
"You cannot use 20 metres on each side of a waterway and there's a proposal that would push that up to 50 to 100 metres," said Verboom, of one of the topics discussed from the Natural Resources Strategy Phase II report.
"If that happens, there's not much left to do anything on the lot other than pay the tax on it."
Verboom said about 30,000 other provincial private woodlot owners would be in the same situation if the proposal proceeds.
"Many would either change profession or move... and there would be no new investment and departures of a few major companies."
Andrew West, a registered forester from Old Barns, said one proposal that upsets him is banning of herbicides.
"Herbicides offer protection against competing vegetation such as raspberries and grass. That would be drastic on some woodlot owners and planting would decrease."
A proposal to ban full-tree chipping also concerns West. Fibre from various tree parts creates biomass but a proposal indicates only tree stems could be used for chipping.
"That would result in 30 per cent more harvested land being needed" to create biomass, he said.
Another hot-bed topic is woodlot owners would not be allowed to cut trees on public or private land without a management plan.
"I think management plans are a good idea... but at a great cost," West said. "They would be expensive for the owner, devalue the land and increase government intervention."
Natural regeneration was another concern.
"Some people are doing it the cheapest way they can," said West, adding he'd like to see rewards put in place for those who harvest responsibly to protect natural regeneration.
Stephen Thompson of Nine Mile River owns 1,500 acres of woodland, including in Colchester and Hants counties.
Thompson is concerned with who would make the proposed management plan.
"I don't think it will work. There are a lot of capable woodlot owners who may not fit criteria to make them... and that could lead to more foreign ownership."
Other proposed changes discussed included increase forest-resources tax assessments for landowners who don't have a land management plan; permit-only clear-cutting; cessation of whole-tree harvesting as a forestry practice, except for Christmas trees; and promotion of programs assisting private landowners who cannot carry out harvesting themselves.
