Timmins LCC

Timmins Local Citizens Committee

Minutes of January 26, 2011

January 26, 2011

LCC hours: 54 hours

Year to Date: 228

Total: 6067.4

Date: January 26, 2011

Location: Ontario Government Complex, Fire Boardroom

Present: Robert Calhoun, Ron Johnson, Stefanie Thibeault, Rusty Fink, Andy Chartrand, Kees Stryland, Kees Pols, Barry Edwards, Allan Moyle, Dave Stringer, Marc Lapalme

Regrets: Bill Russell, Scott Tam, James Naveau, Gail Krawchuk, Lino Morandin, Mark Joron, Bob Bielek, Jenny Millson

Absent: George Sackenay, Rodney Wincikaby

MNR: Glen McFarlane, Randy Pickering, Mac Kilgour, Derrick Romain

Guests: Jeff Amos, NESI, Fisheries Biologist; Christine Greenaway, MNR, Timmins District Management Biologist

Call to Order:

Robert Calhoun called the meeting to order at 6:45 p.m.

Summary of Action Items for This Meeting:

Action Item 01-11-01: Glen believes that the Perry Lake issue has been resolved and will check with Kirkland Lake to obtain the Regional Director’s issue resolution letter to share with the Timmins LCC.

Action Item 01-11-02: There will be time set aside at the February meeting to discuss agree on the scheduling of future LCC meetings

Action Item 01-11-03: OPG will be asked to provide someone to discuss dam operations before the summer 2011 operating season.

MNR will provide a map to the members indicating the mapped out areas of potential new site releases for water power.

Action Item 01-11-04: MNR will provide a Fact sheet about WNS to The Timmins Fur Council, Timmins Snow mobile Club and local mines to enable communication regarding bat activity and locating possible hibernacula sites.

Action Item 01-11-05: MNR will set up a meeting with the Timmins Snowmobile Club to provide the background to the access issue, review the FMP and AWS maps and discuss alternate route options.

Review and Approval of November 24, 2010 Minutes:

Motion to accept- Andy Chartrand
Seconded by- Kees Pols
All in favour

Review and Approval of tonight’s agenda:

§ Motion to accept- Kees Stryland

Seconded by- Barry Edwards
Carried

Letters/Correspondence

No correspondence to report

Action Item Follow-up from November meeting

Action Item 11-10-01: As per that item, Glen provided the members with additional information requested about the Perry lake issue between the Cottage Association and the Temiskaming Forest Planning Team; Glen believes that the issue has been resolved and will check with Kirkland Lake to obtain the Regional Director’s issue resolution letter to share with the Timmins LCC.
Action Item 01-11-01: Glen believes that the Perry Lake issue has been resolved and will check with Kirkland Lake to obtain the Regional Director’s issue resolution letter to share with the Timmins LCC.
Action item 11-10-02 was discussed between Randy Pickering and LCC members regarding the re-scheduling of LCC meetings back to its original time slot of the second Wednesday of the month. Randy told the Committee that they should schedule the meetings that best suit their needs and not to try and accommodate his schedule.
Action Item 01-11-02: There will be time set aside at the February meeting to discuss agree on the scheduling of future LCC meetings.

District Manager Update- Randy Pickering

Randy provided the Timmins LCC members with the following update:

Marcel Desjardins, Area Technician in Timmins District has accepted a new position with MOE as Environmental Officer.
The province is rolling out the new tenure system for forestry; more information to come
The Upper Mattagami OPG Generating Station proposal is nearing completion of its Environmental Report. The report is currently out to the public for a 30 day review period.
There is a proposal for construction of a dam on the Ivanhoe River; this proposal is linked to the Mattagami River Water Management Plan.
The Policy for re-allocation of trap lines is now out.

Q: How does the trap line policy work in relation to allocation of a trap line to First Nations?

A: A 90 day notification is provided to the First Nation regarding the re-allocation of a trap line. In order for a First Nation person to be allocated a line, they must show a family history/attachment to that line and must have a trapping licence.

Q: What will happen with the low water levels at Horwood Lake this coming season and is OPG aware of the snow depths in that area?

A: MNR and OPG will meet to review last year’s dam operations. OPG, MNR and MRCA are aware of the snow depths in the area through regularly monitoring of 8 established snow stations throughout the Timmins District. In order to balance the impacts of values both upstream and downstream of Horwood Lake Dam, OPG must operate the dam according to the Operating Plan established in the Water Management Plan. The lake levels at Horwood Lake are dependent upon not only snow melt but also spring rains to fill the lake. One of the recommendations of the Dillon Report (result of 1996 Timmins Flood) was to establish a local Committee made up of representatives of MNR, MRCA, OPG, and local stakeholders to meet in the spring to discuss and optimise dam operations during the freshet period. Information minutes of these meetings are posted on the MRCA website.

There was a follow-up general discussion about dams, water levels and potential for new water power sites. The Timmins LCC would like to have someone from OPG come in to present operation of dams at a future meeting. Members would like to see a map of new site releases for water power.

Action Item 01-11-03: OPG will be asked to provide someone to discuss dam operations before the summer 2011 operating season.

MNR will provide a map to the members indicating the mapped out areas of potential new site releases for water power.

Ontario’s Broad Scale Lakes Monitoring Program,

Design and Initial Results- Jeff Amos

Jeff provided the LCC with a presentation on Ontario’s broad scale monitoring program. Here are some of the key points (presentation attached):

The monitoring program was first introduced in 2008
There is a need to provide a monitoring program that would support the monitoring of approximately 38,000 lakes in Ontario that are greater than 20 hectares in size.
The program design has to monitor the health of the resource and get beyond the health of individual lakes.
In order to shift to the new framework, the province was divided up into 20 Fishery Management Zones (FMZ).
Provide monitoring and decipher state of the resource within each zone rather than by individual lakes. Timmins District is in FMZ 8 and FMZ 10.
The Fishery management zones have been further stratified by lake size and the predominant species by lake. Lake size bin categories are 20-100 ha; 100-500ha; 500-1500ha; 1500-5000ha; 5000+ha.
The program design will use “Standard Methods for North American Freshwater fishes” and monitor the indicators of fish population health. They are fish abundance by species, size and age by species. Contaminants will be identified and measured. The fish will be sampled through the use of gillnets, NA standard, and the sampling will be completed during the summer season.
Stress indicators will be measured; the identified indicators to measure include community, habitat and exploitation.
Community will be sampled through the use of small mesh gillnets. The target is the fish forage health and abundance.
Habitat quality will be measured through water chemistry, temperature and available oxygen, secchi disk to measure water clarity/light penetration, bathymetry water depth and contour lake bottom configuration.
Exploitation will be measured through aerial creel surveys conducted in summer and winter.
Each FMZ will be sampled every 5 years (5 year cycle)
The sampling method is made up of both fixed and variable design
The fixed design method is best for detecting change
The variable design method is best for detecting state
The mixed design benefits both detecting change and state of the resource
The sample design has targeted 10% of known walleye lakes (462), 10% of known lake trout lakes (228) and 10% of known brook trout lakes (133) for a total of 823 fixed lakes and 823 variable lakes for a total number of 1646 sampled lakes.
This is a huge fish monitoring program that has been undertaken; the data base has now been formed and is working
Samples of information can be seen on slide 20 and 21 of the attached presentation.
Slide 20 depicts catch per unit effort for walleye by zone
Slide 21 depicts average number of species per lake by zone.
Reports generated from the Fish Monitoring program will include

§ Set goals and objectives by zone

§ Provide a statistical summary

§ Be able to perform diagnosis/ are objectives being met?

§ The ability to choose the best management action

BSFM conducted in the Northeast region so far are:

§ 2008-FMZ 10-54 lakes were completed

§ 2009-FMZ 8-15 lakes completed, 10-7 lakes completed, 11-30 lakes complete

§ 2010-FMZ 8, 10-58 lakes completed

The last two slides in the presentation provide detail of fish size by age class for Kenogamisis, Ivanhoe and Horwood lakes for comparison.

Following the presentation there was a round table discussion.

Q: Will there be any river sampling with this program.

A: Presently, there is no river sampling; there may be some fish sampling and monitoring in the future.

The Chairman thanked Jeff for providing his presentation.

Abitibi River Forest (ARF) FMP 2012-2022 Update- Kees Stryland

Kees provided the LCC members with an update on the ARF Plan. The following represents his main points:

The forest incorporates a little more than 3 million hectares.
The forest will be moving to a 2 unit design from its previous 4 unit design
There will be a caribou unit and a non caribou unit for modelling.
Current studies taking place to assist with planning decisions include ongoing caribou study work through Mick Gauthier (MNR Biologist, Cochrane); the possibility of a wolf study; poplar decline growth and yield studies; values identification and monitoring and old growth update.
3 LCCs representing Kirkland Lake, Timmins and Cochrane sit on the Planning team ensuring that their interests and concerns are being heard.
Recently, Gibson Lake cottagers Association have requested information regarding the plan; they have been put on the mailing list.
Kees will bring a copy of the caribou habitat map to the next LCC meeting.

White Nose Syndrome- Christine Greenaway

Christine provided the LCC members with a presentation on White Nose Syndrome, a disease that is affecting the bat populations. The following represents minutes of her discussion (presentation attached):

White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a condition whereby white fungus grows around the face ears and wings of hibernating bats.
Affected bats wake up in the middle of winter and start to fly about
Winter fat storage is then used up and the bats die
The disease was first detected as likely WNS in New York state in 2006 and confirmed in 2007
More than one million bats have been killed by the disease since 2006
A few thousand bats have been killed by the disease in Ontario since 2010.
There are 8 bat species in Ontario; 5 are cave dwellers and 3 migrate.
The disease seems to only affect the cave dwellers.
Bats like to be in close quarters with one another and form large groups in hibernation
Bats have enormous home ranges and travel a few hundred kilometres to hibernate
Cavers (recreation-lists) may spread the fungus unintentionally
This disease is potentially devastating to Ontario’s bat population
We can anticipate more confirmed infected sites throughout Ontario in 2011.
It is difficult to track population decline because of lack of information on hibernacula locations
There is no known cure or treatment
Their recovery will be slow because it is a long lived species (5-15 years) that have 1-2 offspring per year with a 50% juvenile mortality rate
There are no known health risks to humans
One bat consumes thousands of flying insects in one night
Many of these insects might have otherwise fed on agriculture crops or harvestable trees; we could lose an important natural pesticide
The fungus has been identified as “Geomyces Destructans”; a species known to thrive in low temperatures and high humidity’s
The same species is confirmed in Europe but the bats remain healthy; are there two different genetic strains? Are European bats naturally resistant?
Many cause and effect relationships remain to be established
We know that affected bats warm up too soon, emerge from caves and starve to death
One hypothesis is fungus causes the bat to lose water through their wings causing bats to dehydrate; bats then wake up in search of water
We need to understand the fungus better
Need to set up a Bat Working Group in collaboration with the United States Wildlife agencies and other provinces to develop best management practices based on surveillance, prevention and management of WNS
Need to identify candidate hibernacula using abandoned mine data base, historical public knowledge
Set up winter surveillance monitoring for WNS
The public can provide MNR with information such as call if you see:

§ Bats flying during the day

§ Bats seeking warmth near residences

§ Dead or dying bats on the ground (don’t touch them as a small number of bats carry rabies)

§ Let us know of any suspected hibernacula

Rock hounds and cavers should try to stay away from caves and abandoned mines where bats are hibernating

There was some discussion around the table following Christine’s presentation; to assist the MNR, there was a suggestion that Fact sheets about WNS be sent to Timmins Fur Council, the Timmins Snow mobile Club and the local mines.

The chair man thanked Christine for her presentation and follow up discussion.

Romeo Malette Forest Update- Mac Kilgour

Mac provided the members with an update on the RMF forest as follows:

Winter harvest operations and wood haul are moving along normally
A list of amendments and revisions can be made available for your interest

Round Table Discussions

A concern was tabled regarding road conflict use between the Timmins Snow mobile Club and the forest industry on the Grassy Road portion, specifically in the vicinity of the Grassy River bridge
The Pine Street South Road has been upgraded recently by the forest industry and is now used as a long term haul road to connect wood processing facilities at Ostrom, Elk Lake and Timmins operations
There is a need to discuss this issue with the snowmobile club and forest industry to resolve this issue.

Action Item 01-11-05: MNR will set up a meeting with the Timmins Snowmobile Club to provide the background to the access issue, review the FMP and AWS maps and discuss alternate route options.

Very informative meeting- excellent presentations and speakers
Would like to have a presentation on the results of the Wolf study that was carried out in the Timmins District

The meeting adjourned at 9:06 pm

Next Meeting is scheduled for February 23, 2011 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