A Million Dollar View Won't Pay the Mortgage

Written January 6, 2007
Published in The Working Forest March 21, 2011.

I'd like to thank Julee Boan of Environment North for putting some dollar figures in her viewpoint article in The Chronicle-Journal, Thunder Bay, of January 6, 2007.   She says in 2002 Boreal natural capital extractions were twenty-seven point eight billion dollars hard cash in the market place.  She argues that if all the trees are left standing the non-market value is two and a half times that amount.

Psst: Non-market value - imaginary money - empty pockets at the end of the day.

We can't just let the trees stand alone.  All government Accords and Strategies of the past decade have included continued human usage.  With the coming of global warming the trees are going to need our intervention in a big way.  The eastern part of Northern Ontario is in a little better shape having the clay-belt for moisture retention. We in the northwestern portion are living with forests that have a substrate of permeable material.  The forecast of less precipitation could put a deadly hydric stress on dense stands.

Psst: Hydric stress - not enough water - too many trees.

Scientists have been working with real trees to get a handle on how they grow. And, they're doing it in the Sault Ste. Marie area of Ontario and Northern Michigan. The Papadopol Report (2001) gives us hope if we hurry.  Our dense stands of long growing trees need to be thinned to best utilize the reduced soil moisture.

Psst: Of course these reports never specify who is financially responsible for getting these actions done. There are , however, ways it could be financed. One is The Forest Futures Trust which provides finance for the improvement of Ontario's forests.

A shift to drought resistant and or fast growing varieties of tree seedlings for new plantations could satisfy timber -related industries.  The Forest Renewal Fund provides funding for recently harvested areas.  It covers the regeneration process from site preparation to seeding and or planting.  This money comes from forest industry stumpage fees paid for harvest of wood on Crown land based on each cubic meter of wood harvested.  This makes the companies directly responsible for renewal and tending.

Psst: What will we do if there are no companies left?

The Carbon Factor

Ms. Boan makes a statement that Canada's Boreal forests and peatlands store carbon "equivalent to more than three hundred years of Canada's total carbon emissions."  So, why is Canada dragging on its commitment to the Kyoto Accord?  Well, it could be because Kyoto countries have put a cap on how much "storage" we can count.  Kyoto does not recognize wetlands/peatlands storage of carbon.  Kyoto does not recognize agricultural land storage of carbon.  Canada hasn't established who 'owns' the carbon credits of those forests. Alberta has posed the idea of forest industry ownership if they were the ones regenerating that forest. If it was just left for natural regeneration then the government of Canada or the province would have the credit.  Even though these credits are undecided and Canada isn't into buying or selling emission credits ( at least as of December 2006) Montreal has gone ahead and developed a Climate Exchange ( the second in North America after Chicago [edit note Chicago now defunct in 2011]), connecting it to a rules-based greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading system.

Psst: Climate Exchange - are we in it for the health of the planet or just another way to make a million out of the view?