Timmins Local Citizens Committee

 

Minutes of January 14, 2009

 

January 14, 2009

LCC hours:  51 hours

Year to Date: 267

Total: 5512.4

 

Date:   January 14, 2009

 

Location: Ontario Government Complex, Fire Boardroom                                                             

 

Present: James McCarthy, Bob Bielek, Bill Russell, Jenny Millson, Dave Stringer, Robert Calhoun, Kees Stryland, Lino Morandin, Mark Joron

 

Regrets: Kees Pols, Audrey Cumming, Allan Moyle, Chris McKay, Melanie Johnson

 

Absent: George Sackenay, Dino Pellerin, Bill Hutchinson, Robert Vien

 

MNR: Glen McFarlane, Jim Duncan, Nikki Wood, Mac Kilgour

 

Guests: Jeff Leach, Tembec, Kapuskasing; Mark Hall, Tembec, Timmins; Blair Sulivan, Tembec, Timmins; Robert McLeod, Abitibi-Bowater; Don Bazeley, Tembec, Timmins.

 

Call to Order:

Bill Russell called the meeting to order at 6:50 p.m.

 

Summary of Action Items for This Meeting:

 

Action Item 1-09-01: Transportation to the CAF LTMD presentation being held at Abitibi Bowater in Iroquois Falls on February 4, 2009 will be organized by Nikki Wood. A van will leave the OGC at 5:00 pm.

Action Item 01-09-02: Mac Kilgour will send copy of the LCC survey out to the distribution list on E-mail for those people that were not in attendance for tonight’s meeting. Please complete the survey and forward to Mac.

Action Item 01-09-03: That the subject of the Nighthawk AWS review be provided for discussion and recommended approval at the next scheduled LCC meeting

Action Item 01-09-04: Robert Calhoun has suggested that Matt Meade be invited to a future LCC meeting to present the Species at Risk Act.

 

Review and Approval of December 10, 2008 Minutes:

 

 

Review and Approval of tonight’s agenda:

 

 

 

Letters/Correspondence

·         Bill Russell provided the LCC with an announcement from Northwatch inviting the members to attend the Timmins Roundtable scheduled for February 7, 2009 at the Mushkegowuk Council Hall located on 36 Birch Street south in Timmins. Registration for the meeting begins at 9:30 am. The session will include forest management direction for the Cochrane Area Forest, air quality concerns in Timmins, water source protection and local and regional environmental concerns and initiatives. This is an all day session adjourning at 4:00 pm.

·         The Long Term Management Direction Strategy presentation is scheduled for February 4, 2009 at the Abitibi-Bowater office at Iroquois Falls from 6-8pm. Timmins LCC members are welcome to attend. Transportation to the presentation will be organized by Nikki Wood. A van will leave the OGC at 5:00 pm.

Action Item 1-09-01:

Transportation to the presentation will be organized by Nikki Wood. A van will leave the OGC at 5:00 pm.

 

District Manager Update-Jim Duncan

·         Staffing updates for Timmins District include 3 new Area Technicians have started on January 5, 2009 and an additional Area Technician will start later in April 2009. One will be stationed in Timmins and three will be located at the Gogama Area Office.

·         MNR is presently in a hiring constraint; Timmins District has prioritized the filling of vacancies as part of the exercise and will fill the District Land Use Planner first followed by the Area Biologist when the constraint is lifted.

·         The Minister of Natural Resources will be in Timmins on January 19, 2009.

·         Lino Morandin has been accepted as a new member on the Timmins LCC. He will fulfill the role of Large Forest Industry. Welcome to the table Lino.

 

LCC Survey for the Romeo Malatte Forest- Mac Kilgour

·         Mac presented the LCC survey template to the LCC

·         He had instructed the members to complete the survey and return a copy to him before the end of the meeting

·         The survey will also be sent out to the distribution list on E-mail for those people that were not in attendance for tonight’s meeting.

·         He scanned through the survey briefly with the members providing some explanation.

 

 

Action Item 01-09-02:

Mac Kilgour will send copy of the LCC survey out to the distribution list on E-mail for those people that were not in attendance for tonight’s meeting. Please complete the survey and forward to Mac.

 

Romeo Malette Forest Draft Plan Review- Don Bazeley, Lino Morandin, Mark Hall

·         Don provided the LCC with an overview of presentation regarding the subjects that would be discussed by Lino, Mark and himself; The following provides a summary of their presentation (see attachment)

·         The planned selected harvests by forest units are similar to the LTMD Operational plan.

·         The harvest operations are planned out for the first 5 years of cut (Table 16) and include 93 disturbances in 105 blocks. The largest block measures 10,000 ha. And the smallest block is 2 ha. Rationale is provided for all blocks larger than 260 ha.

·         The plan lists the harvest utilization by species, volume and destination (see harvest volume-utilization chart)

·         The plan provides the road access strategy and lists new access, present access and proposed abandonment. The road section also provides for road responsibility between forest industry and MNR and describes levels of maintenance depending on presence and level/frequency of forest management activities. (can be found in roads section of the plan and Appendix 2)

·         The silviculture section of the plan was explained to the LCC members; Mark presented renewal and tending intensities based on forest unit types and variations of prescriptions by forest unit.

·         Mark described the differences between elite, intensive and extensive treatments and corresponding site preparation, artificial planting and natural systems that would be used in each type of treatment.

·         Mark explained the silviculture field implementation schedule where the company is generally working on harvest areas two years after harvest. FMP 21 indicates the area by prescription and treatment. Treatments for 2009 are on areas harvest in 2007-09 harvest blocks.

·         Areas requiring tending are identified through monitoring and assessment. Regenerated areas are surveyed and grouped by priority for requiring tending treatments or possible return and re-treat areas if stocking is too low (NSR 3,4,5) 

·         Approximately 3600 ha. of regenerated areas are surveyed per year for free to grow status

·         Stakeholder concerns on the forest have almost all been addressed

·         The Bromley Lake issue regarding protection of tourism values has progressed well; the Tourism operator is comfortable with the prescription. There is more work required with respect to road abandonment and restricted access signage

·         The Planning team has met with Doyle 13 cottagers. There have been some adjustments made to the harvest plan. The proposed changes still need to go back to the cottagers for review.

·         There are harvest areas adjacent to private land owners on Dalton Road. Discussions are still ongoing.

·         In conclusion, The operational plan supports the management strategy and therefore the Romeo Malette Forest FMP 2009-2019 is a sustainable plan

 

After the presentation, there was an opportunity for questions:

·         Q: Where is the PW seed collected from for the seedlings produced for the RMF forest

·         A: The seeds are sourced from Zone 24 which is situated along the Hwy 101 corridor.

·         Q: How much silviculture will be undertaken each year?

·         A: $1.5mm will be budgeted to spend on the RMF forest annually to maintain a balanced renewal program.

·         Q: Please clarify what is meant by marten zones.

·         A: There was a requirement to provide for a good distribution of marten cores across the forest. The Forest was segmented into 5 zones and 2 marten cores were established per zone.

Don had requested the members, if there were any other questions or queries after the meeting that people could send them to the author in writing.

 

 

Romeo Malatte Forest FMP Draft Plan Support from Timmins LCC

Don asked the LCC members if they were in support of the RMF draft plan;

Bob Bielek presented a resolution to the Timmins LCC in response to Don’s request as follows;

            “The Timmins LCC is generally satisfied with the Romeo Malette draft FMP as presented understanding that the public, LCC and MNR review and comment is yet to be completed which will, no doubt, lead to certain modifications to the draft plan as it moves forward.”

 

Moved to accept this resolution:

·         Motion to accept: Bob Bielek

·         Seconded by: Dave Stringer

·         Carried: All in favour

 

Nighthawk Forest AWS (draft presentation) - Rob McLeod

Rob McLeod provided the LCC members with a presentation on the Nighthawk Forest Annual Work schedule for 2009-2010 season. There will be staff changes over the next year as Krista Mayrand will be taking maternity leave shortly. Rob will take over the management of the forest until they have someone hired to cover Krista’s work load in her absence. The following is a brief summary of his slide presentation (attached):

·         Abitibi-Bowater submitted draft AWS to MNR on December 18th

·         MNR is currently reviewing and will provide list of alterations shortly

·         As a result of the bump up request to MOE there was a rule set in place to harvest no more than 20% of the 10 year allowable harvest in the first two years balanced by forest unit

·         The Licensees scheduled to harvest on the forest include Domtar, Grants, Tembec, Timmins Forest Products, Cutrite Firewood, Nighthawk Timber, Norbord, Roy Warne Logging

·         Road construction scheduled for 2009-10 include work on the Pierre Lake Road, South Wellington Road, Davis Lake Road and construction of tertiary roads within and outside of allocations as required along with use of existing roads.

·         Silviculture projects include proposed mechanical site preparation on 1807 ha. And chemical site preparation of 256 ha.

·         Forest renewal efforts include 962 ha. Of natural treatments and 1249 ha. Of artificial treatments.

·         A total of 400,000 trees will be grown consisting of black spruce, white spruce, jack pine, white pine and red pine.

·         Aerial tending projects are scheduled for a total of 2040 ha.

·         The Company plans to assess 6313 ha of regenerated area.

Due to the limitation of time left in the meeting, Bill Russell had asked the members if it would be ok to delay discussions to next meeting for recommended approval of the Nighthawk AWS.

 

Action Item 01-09-03:

That the subject of the Nighthawk AWS review be provided for discussion and recommended approval at the next scheduled LCC meeting.

 

            Receipt of the Nighthawk AWS

·         Motion to accept- Jenny Millson

·         Seconded by- James McCarthy

·         Carried-All in favour

 

Cochrane Area Forest FMP Update- Kees Stryland

Kees provided the LCC members with an update on the CAF forest planning schedule. A brief summary follows:

·         The LTMD presentation is scheduled for February 4, 2009 at the Abitibi Bowater Mill in Iroquois Falls in which he urges everyone to attend

·         Some of the accomplishments to date include the Desired Forest Benefits meeting which had been held in September of 2008. The results of that meeting were included in the table of objectives/targets.

·         List of Objectives/targets were presented and reviewed by Timmins LCC members at the October and November meetings and the LCC inputs were incorporated

·         The planning team is currently addressing poplar decline issues, caribou strategy

Kees asked the Timmins LCC if there was anything they want to have brought to the table to discuss. The members responded that they are comfortable with what has been brought to the table to date and have been kept informed. Kees will continue with the updates as the planning team moves forward and will also start drafting the LCC report and share with the Timmins LCC members.

 

 

Overview-Species at Risk Presentation-Robert Calhoun

Robert provided the Timmins LCC members with an informative discussion on the Species at Risk presentation he had attended recently. The following is a summary of his discussion:

·         Matt Meade (MNDM) provided a Species at Risk presentation to the Mining Industry on January 13, 2009

·         The Act was passed in June 2008

·         There are approximately 165 species at risk across the province

·         MNR is the agency that will regulate the Act

·         Forest and Hydro are exempt from the Act for 1 year

·         Mines will require a “permit of operations”

·         A number of concerns from the mining industry include:

§         Mining Industry has not received any information about the Act to this point

§         They will require permit yet there is no regulation in place

§         This could have been added to the Environmental process; just one more process barrier in the way

Robert has suggested that Matt Meade be invited to a future LCC meeting to present the topic.

Action Item 01-09-04:

Robert Calhoun has suggested that Matt Meade be invited to a future LCC meeting to present the Species at Risk Act.

           

Round Table Discussion-All

·         Good meeting

·         World Biodiversity Day is scheduled for May 22, 2009

·         Welcome Lino Morandin

·         Nice to see new faces around the table

·         Tembec presentation provided too much information

·         “Can’t absorb all the information provided”

·         Would like to receive feed back from LCC on what to present

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm

            Motion to adjourn- Bob Bielek

            Carried-All

 

Next Meeting

 

Next meeting scheduled for February 11, 2009 at the Fire Boardroom of the Ontario Government Complex. Please contact Gail Krawchuk at gga@ntl.sympatico.ca if you cannot attend.

 

 

Minutes taken by:                                                       Minutes approved by:

 

 

 

……………………                                                      …………………………

Gail Krawchuk                                                            Bill Russell

LCC Secretary                                                            Chair