"WHAT DO WE WANT FROM OUR FORESTS?"

“What do we want from our forests?”

This question was posed by George Marek in 1993.

I’ve been reading Ralph C. Krueger and Bruce Mitchell’s 1977 Methuen publication, “Managing Canada’s Renewable Resources”.

On page 21 they state: “ Efficient use requires a steady response to changing economic and social conditions that continually alter the optimum pattern.   Our policies of assigning land and resources to particular uses, so popular among planners, tend to obstruct the required flexibility.”

Continuing on page 23:  “ The goal of maximum sustained yield contains no economic logic… More value could be gained by exploiting more when values are high and less when values are low.”

If this was in place would Atikokan and Dubreuilville have had their wood taken on the revamp of wood allocations?

In 1993, Peggy Smith, Professional Forester, was on a tour of Limestone Lake’s Plantation with George Marek.  She wrote of that experience in “The Watch Dog Barks”  a free publication published by The Lake Nipigon Watch Dog Society, Beardmore, Fall1993/Winter 1994 edition Volume 2 Number 3. Edgar Lavoie, Editor.

Excerpt from page 6 and 7:

“ In the same area, some stands were left to natural regeneration. The humus layer was not scraped, and site preparation involved dragging barrels.  This area had regrown to mixed wood, with jackpine, black spruce, balsam, and poplar – very different from the original stands, which were almost pure spruce and jackpine.  Marek did not consider this area very satisfactory for timber production, but from the point of biodiversity or wildlife habitat, these stands were satisfactory.

The question Marek faced here is one he thinks none of us have yet answered – what do we want from our forests?

Do we want a forest for timber production, or one which satisfies biodiversity and wildlife habitats? Everywhere in Canada today, we are still debating the merits of each.  We have to ask ourselves what we really want.  The forester can help decide if he understands the terrain and the site (but his understanding is imperfect yet).  We can help decide if we understand the landscape and the prescriptions required to produce the results we want.  The choice is ours.”