Timmins Local Citizens Committee
Minutes of December 14, 2011
December 14, 2011
LCC hours: 48 hours
Year to Date: 218
Total: 6291.4
Date: December 14, 2011
Location: Ontario Government Complex, Fire Boardroom
Present: Bill Russell, Robert Calhoun, Barry Edwards, Mark Joron, Lino Morandin, Rusty Fink, Ron Johnson, Marc Lapalme, Marcel Cook, Kees Stryland, Scott Tam
Regrets: James Naveau, Gail Krawchuk, Dave Stringer, Stefanie Thibeault, Jenny Millson, Pam Reid, Allan Moyle, Bob Bielek, Andy Chartrand, Kees Pols
Absent: George Sackenay, Chris McKay
MNR:, Randy Pickering, Glen McFarlane, Dave Levesque,
Guests: Laurie Nuhn, Forester Intern, First Resources Management Group, Mike Cartan, MNR, Far North, Shazad Chaudhary, MNR, Far North
Call to Order:
Bill Russell called the meeting to order at 6:45 p.m.
Summary of Action Items for This Meeting:
No action items to carry from this meeting
Review and Approval of October 26, 2011 Minutes:
Motion to accept- Mark Joron
Seconded by- Robert Calhoun
All in favour-Carried
Review and Approval of tonight’s agenda:
Marc Lapalme has requested to add Shiningtree Snowmobile trail topic to the agenda
Motion to accept- Kees Stryland
Seconded by- Barry Edwards
All in favour-Carried
Letters/Correspondence
A letter was received by MNR Timmins District announcing that front counter service has been closed; instead there will be a telephone and directory located at the entrance that people can access to call to individuals for service inquiries.
MOE is looking for applications to support environmental remedial project proposals; so far they have about $60,000.00 available for projects. This money is collected via environmental fines paid out in the Nighthawk area.
Barry Edwards informed everyone that the Auto Wreckers Association also has an environmental fund available for interested parties to propose environmental remedial projects.
Bill Russell spoke about a discussion that took place on the Dome Watchful Eye Committee where members investigated ways in which to discourage dumping of domestic waste outside of designated waste disposal sites; the city does have enforceable by-laws in place where culprits can be charged and fined for dumping. A copy of the by-law will be forwarded with these minutes.
District Manager Update- Randy Pickering
Randy provided the Committee members with a district update as follows:
Liberty Mines Redstone Mill site are working on repairing and raising their existing tailings pond to accommodate mill production for the next 3 years. Permits will be in place shortly.
Mattagami Lake Dam and Generating station meeting took place in early December with OPG, DFO, consultants and MNR at the table to review final modeling changes to the designs and the spillways. The new proposal will enhance the area. The next step in the proposal is to provide an amendment of proposed changes to the MOE for review and approval.
The district is readying for a Moose Aerial Inventory for WMU 29 and will support Chapleau on the implementation of a survey on WMU 31.
The Romeo Malette Independent Forest Audit (IFA) Action Plan status report has been completed or ongoing depending upon recommendation. The next IFA is scheduled for this year (2012)
Mid Canada Radar Line Clean-up Update- Shazad Chaudhary, Mike Cartan, MNR
Mike and Shazad provided the LCC members with an update and presentation on the mid Canada Radar line clean-up; the following represents some of the main points of the presentation:
They are into their 3rd year of the project
They are dealing with soil contamination, derelict buildings and fuel drums
There are 4 major sites in which two are completed and a third site nearing completion.
The project is comprised of 16 sites in total and projected $85 million dollars to complete the clean-up.
The clean up is being lead by MNR and have partnered up with First Nation communities along the coast for labour support.
A video of the work that took place at site 500/Winisk was shown to the LCC members.
The presentation and update was followed by a brief round table discussion related to some of the techniques used to bury contaminated soil and tearing down of buildings and storage containers.
The Chairman thanked both Mike and Shazad for their presentation update and video.
Romeo Malette Forest 2010-11 Annual Report- Lino Morandin
Lino provided the Timmins LCC members with a presentation on the RMF Annual Report and provided the following points (copy of presentation and charts attached):
The annual report represents the April 2010 to March 2011 forest management activities that took place on the RMF
The annual harvest area indicated on the first chart attached for RMF is 4,603 ha.
The harvested area for 2009 was 2350 ha. and 2010 was 7319 ha. Which when added together represent 9669 ha. or about 42 % of the harvest level for the 5 year FMP.
The attached chart also shows planned harvest area by forest unit over the 5 year period; about 87% of the Pj1 unit has been harvested to date and no more than 100% of that unit can be harvested within the 5yr. FMP
The 2nd attached chart called Harvest Volumes shows the estimated amount of wood to be harvested by species over the 5 year term; the per cent to date is 47% of estimated 5 year volumes have been harvested.
The 3rd chart, Consumption by Mill, on the attachment indicates wood volume harvested by species and shipped to destination.
In 2010-11, 3248 ha. of area has been reported as regenerating naturally following harvest and 1141 ha. ha. been planted with 1.986 million trees.
Table AR 3 shows the breakdown of amount of seeds used, and number of trees by species that were grown and planted
The rest of the silviculture program for 2010-11 included 63 ha. of aerial seeding to Pj, 937 ha. mechanical site preparation, 497 chemical site preparation, 1199 ha. of tending; there was slash piling that took place in areas that were artificially regenerated to expose more plant able spots and 86 hectolitres of Pj cones were collected.
In 2010-11 there were no new primary roads constructed; bridge over the Kamiscotia River on the Abitibi Road was completed; 24.7 kms of branch road was constructed and 328 kms of road was maintained
In 2010-11 there were 42 industry compliance reports and 17 MNR reports filed; there was 1 warning letter written from MNR about an AOC infraction from the previous year.
There was 1 wild fire on the RMF that consumed 7340m3 of confer and 1360 m3 of hardwood on 111 ha. of forest
Insects consumed about 5302 m3 of conifer and 634 m3 of hardwood on approximately 100 ha. of forest
6059 ha. of regenerated area was surveyed and 98.5% was declared free to grow and 90 ha. will require further tending treatment. Some areas will require a ground survey as the air survey was not adequate enough to identify species composition.
Following the presentation, there was much discussion pertaining to post harvest treatments for regeneration and productivity of the land base. The argument pertains to whether there should be more investment into artificial treatments and increasing productivity and reducing the future harvest foot print versus allowing for natural regeneration systems to take place over a larger land base.
The Chairman thanked Lino for his presentation.
Shiningtree Snow mobile Trail Update- Marc Lapalme
Marc provide the members with an update on the issue of the snowmobile sharing a portion of the Grassy Road with forest industry:
Snow mobile clubs from Sudbury, Timmins and Shiningtree met with MNR, Hydro1 and TFAI to discuss the issue regarding sharing of the road with forest industry and attempt to provide solutions
There are 2 pinch points along the access route; the Grassy River bridge has to be used by snow mobilers as there is no alternative and about 11 kms of road will be required to be shared until another route can be cleared beyond 2012.
This year the snow mobile groomer machine will be radio equipped to communicate with haul trucks; signs will be erected to identify the hazards.
The meeting was very good and it seems like everyone was in favour to working on a long term solution to the issue.
Abitibi River Forest FMP Draft Contingency Plan and AWS- Laurie Nuhn
Laura provide the Timmins LCC members with a presentation on the ARF draft Contingency Plan and the AWS; the following represents the main points of her discussion (see attached presentation):
LTMD was endorsed on October 25, 2012; MOE provided approval for a 1 year Contingency Plan on November 10, 2012.
The Contingency Plan will submit 13,567 ha. of forest available for harvest in 2012-13 which represents 10% of the total harvest area in a 10 year FMP.
2,846 ha. of forest will be allowed to be bridged from the 2010-12 Contingency plan allowed for harvest by March 31/13
The Renewal and Maintenance program will target 10,425 ha. for natural regeneration, 3,300,000 trees will be scheduled to be planted on 1,500 ha. of post harvest area
There is a further 433 ha. of area targeted for supplemental planting
Aerial tending is scheduled for 13403 ha. of harvest area where 6,000 ha. will be treated
2,460 ha. of area has been identified for mechanical site preparation which 800 ha. will be treated
2787 ha. of area is scheduled for chemical site preparation which 1500 ha. will be completed.
Roads scheduled for construction includes 63.2 kms. of primary road and 198.5 kms. of branch roads
The AWS also identifies operational roads as required on 1:20,000 maps.
The MNR is responsible for fuel-wood permit issuance; there are some standard conditions, each district varies with local policies
Monitoring and Assessment will be minimal this year as most of the survey work has been completed over the past 2 years.
The Company has a 10 year strategy that identifies inspection criteria for all forest management activities
An annual schedule of activities and schedule for forest operation inspections will provide direction for the inspectors
Compliance monitoring will focus on values identified in the FMP, ensure protection of the forest ecosystem that reflects the fmp objective
Fire Prevention provides detail to procedures and standards that must be followed during the fire season.
Following Laurie’s presentation there were a few questions as follows:
Q-Are there any snow mobile trails that will be affected by forest operations in 2012-13
A- No, there should be no issues with trails this year.
There was a general round table discussion pertaining to acceptable minimum stocking levels of acceptable species at free to grow stage of the regenerating forest. The concern is about the acceptance of 40% stocking levels as being acceptable; it is very rare that a forest block is allowed to be free to grow at 40%. In most cases the allowable acceptable limits are between 65-85% depending upon the forest unit. There was also discussion regarding forest succession and the need to allow for both natural and artificial regeneration techniques to allow for species diversity on the landscape through time.
The Chairman thanked Laurie for her presentation.
Round Table Discussions-All
Can we have TWP boundaries shown on base maps at the next FMP open house?
Very interesting discussion on forest succession
Good dinner
Laurie provide hats to all of the LCC members as a token of appreciation
The Far North update was very interesting, thank you
The meeting adjourned at 8:55 pm
Next Meeting is scheduled for January 25, 2012 at the Fire Boardroom of the OGC.
Please contact Gail Krawchuk at gga@ntl.sympatico.ca if you cannot attend.
Minutes typed by: Minutes approved by:
…………………… …………………………
Gail Krawchuk Bill Russell
LCC Secretary Chair