Public still has time to voice opinion on mills harvesting plans

CORNER BROOK - While there was little public interest shown in the public consultations held in the past year, people still have until next month to voice their opinions about Corner Brook Pulp and Paper's five-year harvesting plans within Forest Management Districts 14 and 15.

The paper company submitted its harvesting plans for the west and southwest coasts of the island for the years 2009 to 2013 to the provincial government for environmental assessment earlier this month.

Public comments are due by Nov. 10 and Environment and Conservation Minister Charlene Johnson's decision is due by Nov. 17.

This plan is one of the first of its type that reflects the new legislated planning requirements of the Newfoundland Forest Service. There used to be a requirement for both Corner Brook Pulp and Paper and the Crown to each submit a five-year plan for each of these two districts. The company accounts for about 30 per cent of the two districts through its timber licenses - most of which don't expire until 2037.

Now, the two ecologically-similar districts are treated as one ecoregion - known as Zone 6 in this case - and each entity only has to submit one five-year plan for each zone.

"The meetings for those districts were held jointly and the issues dealt with jointly," explained Stephen Balsom, a planning forester with Corner Brook Pulp and Paper. "We still had to show and discuss our forest management objectives in each of those districts separately. It's just that they are submitted for environmental assessment under one plan."

According to the registration document, that planning process began about a year ago with public advertisements for initial meetings in Corner Brook and Stephenville, but most of the input eventually came from stakeholders who had to be invited to the table.

"The initial meeting was designed to inform attendees of the change in the planning framework as a result of the new legislation, the ground rules for participation and to form the new planning team for the zone," the document reported. "Attendance at these meetings was extremely poor. Therefore, a second public meeting was held at both locations. This meeting was also poorly attended, however, with a few exceptions; attendees were common to both meeting locations ...This lack of interest in the process left organizers in a dilemma on how to garner input from stakeholders. It was decided to contact the major stakeholders individually to identify and characterize their values ...Every attempt was made to garner input from a wide range of groups and individuals. It is very disheartening however that, despite numerous attempts, little interest was shown."

While the approach was somewhat new, Balsom said the nuts and bolts of this latest plan is not that different from the previous five-year plan for these areas, which stretch from Burgeo and Port aux Basques in the south northwards to the southern boundary of Gros Morne National Park.

The company plans to harvest a total of nearly 1.7 million cubic metres of timber in both districts in the next five years, including a little more than 1.2 million cubic metres in District 15 - the more northerly of the two districts.

The company is also planning to build 77 kilometres of road in the coming five years, including about 63 kilometres in District 15.

In terms of silviculture activity, the company's plans are to conduct pre-commercial thinning on 4,100 hectares of forest, plant new trees on 1,950 hectares and treat another 200 hectares with herbicide.

"One of the issues that we have to deal with is harvesting in the Humber Valley viewshed," said Balsom, alluding to concerns raised by local residents in recent years about the aesthetic impact being able to see clear-cut tracts of forest from the highways might be having on the local tourism industry.

"We are working with the Department of Tourism (Culture and Recreation) to develop a harvest plan for the Humber Valley."

The value of forested areas to tourism and recreation are taken into account and the paper company said it consults with tourism operators, outfitters, municipalities and other relevant entities about using landscape design techniques where possible to maintain aesthetic views when conducting forest operations.

Once the current environmental assessment process is complete, the paper company will submit annual plans to government, outlining its plans for the coming year, for the duration of the five-year term.