Please, take a moment to review this information in conjunction with viewing the maps.
The following are the most common questions and concerns regarding viewing Forest Management Plan maps. Please see other sections on this website regarding the production of Forest Management Plans, the Local Citizen's Committee, the planning team and consultation schedule.
What do the different colours mean?
Each colour represents a different forest unit. A forest unit is a group of stands upon that are similar and managed with the same silvicultural sytem. See the file "legend" to see what each means. There is more information on the silviculture systems in the "Forestry 101" section of this website.
There is hatching on the map of a proposed allocation and the legend says this means it is contingency.what is contingency?
Contingency areas have gone through all the required public consultation but are not planned to be harvested unless there is a problem with a normal allocation area such as an area is simply not ready for harvest or there is some other obstacle. An amendment to the plan will be submitted to substitute the normal area with the contingency area.
What does Phase I and Phase II mean?
Phase 1 areas are scheduled for the first 5-years of the plan (2009-2014). Phase II areas are scheduled for the second 5-years of the plan (2014-2019). Phase I areas not yet completed may be brought forward into this second 5-year period.
There is a proposed allocation near me, when will it be harvested?
Unfortunately, we do not know at this time, only that it may be harvested sometime between April 1, 2004 and March 31, 2009. Annual Work Schedules are produced each year and made available for inspection prior to the commencement of operations for that year. Their availability is made known through direct mailings to individuals MNR believes may be interested and through notices in local newspapers. If you are interested to be included on a mailing list, please provide your mailing particulars and the specific location you are concerned about (e.g. lot, concession, township, proximity to a lake or other easily found feature).
What roads will the companies use to harvest the wood and what will happen to the road?
We cannot be certain at this time how the companies will access their harvest allocation due to the possibility of changing conditions. They do try to use existing roads as much as possible. As an operating condition, they must leave the road in as good or better condition than when they found it. The future of the road will be decided through the Road Use Strategy that the MNR and Westwind are developing in consultation with stakeholders.
We don't want the forest industry to use OUR road on Crown land.
Most roads over Crown land were initially established by the forest industry at one time and although other groups such as cottage associations have since maintained them, they remain open and available to the forest industry. Because little Clearcutting is done, the partial harvesting systems require repeated access to the same stands every 20 years or so. Roads over Crown land are not the exclusive property of any group and permits granted to individuals or groups for constructing roads over Crown land state this as a condition of the permit. It is not in the best interest of the forest to have multiple roads for different forest users. Forest companies are required to leave these roads in as good or better condition as how they were found.
Will roads be left open and new water crossings be left in place after the forest company is finished in an area?
It depends. MNR assesses what roads should be left passable to assist MNR in all programs it is responsible for overseeing. Higher order plans (e.g. Ontario’s Living Legacy) may provide direction in certain areas to limit vehicular access into an area. Some roads require entrance permits from municipalities and there are usually conditions on these permits to close the entrance after completion of operations.
Groups or individuals may enter into Memorandum of Agreements with MNR allowing them to assume maintenance and liability requirements on crossings that are of benefit to them. Contact MNR for more information.
Road Use Strategies have been prepared for all significant road networks.
I'm concerned about wildlife, how will the proposed forestry plans affect wildlife?
The forest is always changing but most suddenly by natural events such as fire and wind and human-caused events such as logging. With any of these changes, some wildlife species benefit, some have less desirable habitat and some are not affected. The Forest Management Plan through a variety of modelling tools ensures that there is always an adequate supply of very good habitat for a range of species. In addition, there are several forest values such as heronries, hawk nests, moose aquatic feeding areas, deer wintering areas, beaver habitat and fishery values that are protected or even enhanced by special management prescriptions. These prescriptions may including timing restrictions to avoid nesting periods of goshawks, modified harvesting to maintain a higher amount of conifer in the stand in deer wintering areas, or no-cut reserves in which no harvesting activity can be carried out. Often, a combination of these elements are in the area of concern prescriptions. Each walked by certified tree markers who not only mark trees to achieve silvicultural objectives but also identify and protect forest values. In addition to implementing area of concern prescriptions, they also leave behind several cavity trees (trees with holes in them), supercanopy trees (trees that stick up above the average height of the forest canopy), and mast trees if available (trees that produce valuable food such as acorns, beechnuts and black cherries).
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