It's An Interesting Time For The Forest Industry

"Where we are headed is an economy where there is going to be simultaneous competition for food, fuel and fibre," Marty Luckert told more than 250 delegates to the Ontario Professional Foresters Association's annual conference

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It's An Interesting Time For The Forest Industry

Posted By HAROLD CARMICHAEL, THE SUDBURY STAR
April 42, 2009

The future of the Canadian forest is going to be a complicated one, predicts a University of Alberta professor.

"Where we are headed is an economy where there is going to be simultaneous competition for food, fuel and fibre," Marty Luckert told more than 250 delegates to the Ontario Professional Foresters Association's annual conference and general meeting Thursday at the Holiday Inn.

"We are already seeing it in Alberta: food versus fibre ... Local land values will determine what happens to the land. There are going to be some years when crops make more sense for the land. There's going to be some years when trees are going to make more sense for the land."

A rural economy professor who specializes in forest research and natural resource policy, Luckert said the current forest management system isn't working.

Right now, private companies cut trees on Crown land, pay stumpage fees based on what they cut, replant based on what they remove and have to operate a processing facility near their operations.

What is needed, he argued, is a new system that allows more freedom of decision by the forest companies, while increasing control on the public aspects of the land involved.

Such a change would eliminate the need for companies to go deep into Canada's hinterland to cut wood that costs too much to take.

It would also remove red tape connected to the cutting, transportation and processing of trees.

"We can't expect private companies to act as governments and we can't expect governments to act as private companies," said Luckert.

As it is, a slight jump or drop in the price of wood can make a forest worth cutting or uneconomical, he said.

That's why, with the current system, Luckert warned things have to change soon or Canada's forestry industry, already in trouble, can't be saved.

You can't keep on piling constraints and expect an industry to survive," he said.

Luckert was one of more than half a dozen speakers on Tuesday, the conference's second of three days. Ontario Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield gave the lunch-hour speech.

The association represents 960 people who work in the forestry industry in Ontario, including areas such as research and forest management.

Association president Carl Corbett said in an interview the focus of the conference is forest tenure.

"There are always issues with insects and disease, but based on my experience over the last 30 years in Ontario, the Ontario forests are in the best shape they have ever been," he said.

Corbett said these are interesting times for Ontario's forestry industry due to things such as aboriginal interest in cutting wood and the advancement of bio-fuels.

"When you are dealing with public forests, there are always a number of issues," he said. "But, with what is happening in the economy, how do you provide for opportunities for those people in the business?"

Additional Information

Web Site: http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1538552

Category: Forestry>Industry Trends

Region: Alberta

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