HALIFAX - A new provincial strategy calls for a 50 per cent reduction in clearcutting of Nova Scotia forests over five years, Natural Resources Minister John MacDonell announced Wednesday.
MacDonell said the reduction would be significant in a province where about 95 per cent of forestry harvesting is currently done through clear cutting on Crown and private lands. That amounts to a total of 40,000 hectares a year.
Under the plan all commercial harvests would have to register with MacDonell's department and annual progress reports would have to be submitted.
"My staff have had discussions with industry and the target of 50 per cent seems a doable one," said MacDonell.
The minister admitted that enforcement would not be easy given his department's limited resources, but MacDonell said steps could be taken, including the introduction of fines for illegal clearcuts and failure to meet targets.
And although MacDonell stressed that a penalty regime was still under consideration, he said stiff fines should likely be part of the package. He was asked what would constitute a stiff fine.
"A stiff fine should be the value of the wood on the stand," he said. "If you do the wrong thing, if your fine is what we think the value of the wood might be, then that makes it redundant to bother spending the money to try to harvest it."
Environmental groups welcomed the clearcut reduction as an "ambitious target."
Chris Miller, a senior conservation biologist with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said the target is badly needed in a province where over 500,000 hectares of forest have been clear cut since the 1990s.
Miller said monitoring and enforcement of the policy would be key to its success.
"One of the ways that you can do that is using an independent and arms-length organization that has access to satellite photos. ... We hope the government will consider that as an option," said Miller.
Jamie Simpson of the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre said the reduction target and overall policy direction announced by MacDonell was a "step in the right direction."
"It really puts the challenge out there to the forest industry ... and those that are committed to staying long term in this province working with our forests," said Simpson.
Bill Stewart, director of woodlands for the NewPage pulp mill in Port Hawkesbury, N.S., said the clearcut target would pose a challenge to meet but the industry could likely adapt by being innovative and more selective in its forestry practices.
"We had thought 10 years was probably more appropriate, but we look forward to sitting down with the province ... and working together to find reasonable solutions," said Stewart.
He said NewPage manages a Crown lease of 600,000 hectares in addition to a small amount of private land.
Stewart said his company harvests about one per cent of that land each year and about two-thirds of that is clear cut.
"If we move from two-thirds down to 50 per cent that is a relatively small change on that one per cent of the land," he said.
Among other things, the new policy would also look at implementing a provincewide allowable cut limit, although there are no details about what limits are under consideration.
It would also prohibit the removal of a whole tree from the forest in order to maintain the soil, although the harvesting of Christmas trees would be exempt.
MacDonell said the Mi'kmaq, industry and woodlot owners will now be asked for further input before all of the new policies are finalized in a broader natural resources strategy currently being worked on.
