Editor's Column
Guest Columns
Forest Facts
Some 1.5 billion trees are planted in the U.S. every year, about 5 trees for every American.
Annually, U.S. forestland owners plant about 6 trees for every tree harvested.
About one-third of America's original forest - some 300 million acres - have been converted to other uses, principally agriculture.
There are 26 million more acres of forestland in the Northeast than there were in 1900.
Today, forests blanket about one-third of the U.S. land base and about half the U.S. East.
U.S. annual growth rates have exceeded harvest rates since the 1940's.
Timber harvesting is forbidden on 50% of all National Forest lands in the U.S.
National Forests account for 20% of the nation's forestlands and 19% of its timberlands.
National Forests hold 46% of the nation's softwood timber inventory but only provide 6% of the annual harvest.
Since 1986, the harvest of timber from America's national forests has declined 70%.
In the West, 34% of all forestland and 54% of all timberlands are in national forests.
National forests in the Pacific Coast and Intermountain West regions hold 68% of the nation's softwood timber inventory, but provide less than 28% of annual harvest.
Forest density has increased 40% in the U.S. over the last 50 years.
Flying Finns
Home->Fall 2004
Even the large urban centers have a stake in the forestry sector. Québec City, the capital of Québec, is host to several forestry research centers, including Forintek, a world leader in the development of cutting edge engineered wood products and lumber manufacturing processes. Montreal, Québec’s largest city, is host to international associations like the Pulp and Paper Products Council, and to the corporate headquarters of eight pulp and paper companies that have a combined annual production capacity of some 20 million tons.
Beyond forestry, millions of people also use the forests for hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities, a sector that represents over three billion dollars in yearly spending in Québec. Thousands of jobs are also linked to Québec’s famous maple syrup industry, which represents over 90% of Canada’s production, while activities like the harvesting, in forested areas, of other plants like blueberries or the Canada yew, highly sought-after for its pharmaceutical properties, are growing in importance. Meanwhile, Québec’s network of protected areas has grown from 2.9% of Québec’s territory in the late 1990s to over 5.5% today, as the province works to protect at least 8% of its territory by the end of 2005.
Participating in forest management
Ensuring that these various uses of Québec’s forests can cohabitate as harmoniously as possible is, of course, a complex task. “Making sure that all users are treated with consideration, and conciliating the presence of many users on the same territories is one of the most important challenges facing Québec’s forestry management system,” says Marc Ledoux, the associate deputy minister for Forests at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks.
Québec’s forestry management system has evolved considerably in order to help this multi-usage conciliation process. In the late 1990s, an in-depth public review of the system led to the drafting of a number of new legislative measures, which were adopted by Québec’s National Assembly in May 2001 and have gradually come into effect since then.
A fair number of these recent measures look to increase the involvement of stakeholders in the planning of forestry operations, a movement that has accelerated considerably in recent years. “Over the course of the last two decades, we’ve gone from providing information to consultation to participation”, sums up Mr. Ledoux. “ The process began at an administrative level in the 1990s, and was made into a formal part of the system, at the legislative level, in 2001.”
Increasing public involvement is seen as a way to improve the acceptability of forest management methods and forcing all stakeholders to interact and take each other’s perspectives into consideration. Jacques Gauvin, the director general of the Québec Forest Industry Council, the sector’s main association in the province, points out that the consultation policy “is a concerted effort to make the process more transparent” and thus a good way to reinforce the industry’s credibility.
Now, public consultations are required for a wide-range of subjects, including: general policies and programs concerning the management of both public and private forests; public land use plans; the indicators used to evaluate the performance of logging rights holders; the protection of exceptional forest ecosystems; the determination of forest protection and development objectives (soil and water protection, ancient forest preservation, etc.) within each forest management unit, as well as any significant amendment to the Forest Act. The re-drawing of the management units that compose public forests and the definition of a northern boundary to commercial management, following the 2001 review of the Forest Act, was the first major step in this process—along with a public consultation on the public consultations policy itself.
Although they are called by the minister of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks, the consultations are primarily managed by regional authorities. The goal is to allow stronger participation at the regional level, and to make sure that policies can be adjusted to the specific requirements of each region. In the same spirit, the Forest Act also states that consultations involving Aboriginal communities must be adapted to better take into account their traditional activities and values.
In the years leading to the 2001 legislative amendments, many had called for such a process to be included in the public forest management system. Still, the introduction of a systematic consultation process was met with a certain dose of skepticism “For many people, the first reaction is to say that consultations aren’t any use, that they won’t change anything. I can tell you that certainly isn’t the case,” says Richard Savard, the person in charge of forestry issues at the Conference regionale des élus du Bas-Saint-Laurent, a forum of elected representatives from this region of Eastern Québec. Indeed, a recent survey of consultation participants by the ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks showed that about 70% of participants felt their opinions were taken into account as policies were developed.
“There have been two major consultations since the 2001 legislative reform,” Mr. Savard explains. “The first one was about the reorganization of the territorial units for forestry management. People actively took part in that one, there was plenty of time to prepare, and the government listened. The result was really wonderful. The second one, in the fall of 2003, was concerned with the introduction, in the five-year management plans used by logging right holders, of the new forest protection and development objectives. That one was not quite as successful: with the many complex subjects involved, people were less able to intervene in a fully knowledgeable manner. Still, the process is a clear improvement over the past.”
Gilles Lavoie and Anne Stein, two of the people responsible for organizing the public consultation processes within the ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks, point out that the system is still quite young, and that adjustments will be introduced, over time. “We need to change perceptions and ways of thinking, to reduce the level of mutual apprehension, and that takes years to accomplish”, points out Lavoie.
“Consulting is a way to help make the best possible decisions,” says Anne Stein. “We hope that it will allow the ones to be more understanding of the others, and that public consultations will increasingly become a forum for dialogue.”
Improving Dialogue
One area given special consideration, in this context, is the participation of Québec’s 11 Aboriginal Nations in the management and development of Québec’s forests. Today, partnerships are beginning to emerge where tensions and loudly expressed discontent—if not pure and simple mutual ignorance—were more often on the agenda.
“Fifteen years ago, the people involved on either side hardly knew the names of the people across the table,” sums up Jean-François Gravel, director of Aboriginal Relations at the Ministry of National Resources. “Now, people are talking, and often on a regular basis.”
The best example of the considerable change in the nature of the relationship between First Nations and the government of Québec is the signing of a new and innovative agreement between Québec and the Cree people living in the greater James Bay area, in the northern part of the province. Signed in February 2002, this “Peace among Braves”, as Cree Grand Chief Ted Moses named it, put an end to two decades of legal battles and often tense relations between the Cree and the Québec government. It is a wide-ranging, fifty-year deal involving hydroelectric development, mining, forestry, wildlife and community development. The signing of this “nation to nation” agreement was a watershed moment that has highlighted a change in the tone and substance of relations between Aboriginal peoples and the government of Québec. Within a few months, a similar, twenty-five year agreement had been signed with the Inuit people, the Cree’s northern neighbors.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Cree representatives had actively campaigned on the international scene to make their disagreements with the Québec government known. Today, they are regularly appearing in international forums, including various United Nations organizations, to present the 2002 agreement as an example for governments all over Canada and all over the World.
At the forestry level, a Cree-Québec forestry board, along with joint working groups in each Cree community, started working in 2003, in order to put in place an adapted management system taking into account traditional Cree activities, the location of trap lines used by Cree fur trappers and of culturally significant sites, as well as wildlife management considerations. An article in the winter 2004 issue of Eeyou Eenu Nation, the Grand Cree Council’s magazine, pointed out that recent months have been “exceptionally productive”, as the Cree-Québec joint working groups completed important work like the complete mapping of trap lines, and the establishment of protected areas and wildlife interest areas within the territory covered by the 2002 agreement.
Québec Forest Industry Council’s Jacques Gauvin describes the discussions between forestry companies present in the area and the Cree authorities as “cordial” and wide-ranging: “proposals by both sides have covered issues such as job training, management overview, and the way the new rules may affect supplies and employment levels for Cree and non-Cree workers.”
The agreements signed in Northern Québec are by no means the only examples of this change in outlook. For instance, the modernization of Bowater’s sawmill in the town of Maniwaki, in western Québec, took place in large part thanks to a five-year partnership signed between the company and the Algonquin first nation of Kitigan Zibi, an immediate neighbor to Maniwaki itself. The community has signed a five-year agreement to deliver its wood allocations in Québec public forests to the Maniwaki plant, thereby contributing over a quarter of the supply that the plant needs for its annual production of 135 million bfm.
In north central Québec, an agreement between the ministry, forest companies active in the region and the Manawan Atikamekw community have defined community involvement in the forestry management decision-making process and allowed a growing number of young Atikamekw to be employed in local forests. At a time when the forestry industry is increasingly concerned about renewing an ageing workforce, nearly 100 young aboriginal workers will be doing sylviculture work this year, up from 67 in 2003.
Other agreements of varying scope have been signed or are being negotiated with several other Aboriginal communities all over Québec. Although outstanding issues remain in some regions—tensions with the Long Point Algonquin First Nation, in Northwestern Québec, delayed the beginning of the harvesting season in the area’s public forests, this spring—the climate has changed considerably over the last few years. “There is a much better mutual understanding of everyone’s point of view,” says Jean-François Gravel. “It’s no longer a question of one side wondering what the other wants to take away from them.”
Facing the future
Indeed, conciliatory attitudes will be needed across the board, as Québec’s forest sector sees more change on the horizon. For instance, limits in the expansion of available supply and changes in the context of international trade are pushing companies to increase secondary and tertiary processing. Québec is aiming to ensure that such changes still allow the industry to remain present all over the province, in order to sustain regional economic development.
Also, an independent commission on the management of Québec’s public forests was called late last year to ascertain whether the system is fully meeting its objectives. Numerous regional and national associations, forest companies, wildlife managers and environmental groups have made representations in this new round of consultations on Québec forestry. The commission’s report is expected by the end of 2004, and will likely include recommendations reinforcing integrated forest management in Québec’s public forests, in order to further improve the balance between social, economic and environmental factors.
Enacting such changes would certainly be a new test of Québec’s capacity to generate constructive dialogue between forest sector stakeholders.
Managing Québec’s Public Forests
Public forest management in Québec is governed mainly by the Forest Act and its regulations. Its stated objectives are sustainable development, accountability and public participation in the decision making process. It promotes management methods that favor natural regeneration of Québec’s forests, in order to preserve the characteristics of each ecosystem.
A central aspect of the Act is the Timber Supply and Forest Management Agreement (TSFMA), a twenty-five year contract offering long-term supplies to the forest companies, in exchange for managing the forests in a manner that will maintain or improve productivity and, through a series of protection and development objectives, preserve its biodiversity. Several agreement holders can cohabitate on a single territorial unit; they then become collectively accountable for the management activities and their results on the whole territory.
By law, such agreements are reviewed every five years, and extended for a further five-year period, insofar as the holder has fulfilled its obligations. Harvesting is allowed within the limits of a determined allowable annual cut meant to ensure stable supply levels, and companies pay the Québec government stumpage fees calculated in direct relation to the price of standing wood on the marketplace.
As part of their obligations, TSFMA holders must draw up five-year General Forest Management Plans that describe the management strategies and activities and the silviculture work that is to take place over that period of time. Under the provi-sions of the Forest Act enacted since 2001, Agreement holders are now obligated to include municipal authorities, Aboriginal communities, wildlife area managers and other stakeholders in the preparation of these plans.
Quebec
By: Remy Charest
| Population: | 7.5 million |
| Total Area: | 154.1 million ha |
| Land Area: | 135.7 million ha |
| Forest Land: | 83.9million ha |
| Provincial Parks: | 7.2 million ha |
Forests take up an important place in Québec, in more than one way. First, because woodland covers nearly half of Canada’s largest province —290,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Texas and almost twice the size of Montana. Tree-covered expanses are a constant, visible presence in most Québeckers’ lives and, since 89% of them are under public ownership, an important concern for everyone.
Interest in the state and future of Québec’s forests is also driven by their economic importance. Wood processing represents the main manufacturing activity in nearly 250 municipalities, and accounts for 13% of all manufacturing sector jobs in Québec. In 2002, shipments reported by the forest products industry totaled nearly 15 billion US dollars, two-thirds of which went for export.
 Regular testing of growth rates in publicly owned forests is an essential part of Québec's sustainable forest management program |
Beyond forestry, millions of people also use the forests for hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities, a sector that represents over three billion dollars in yearly spending in Québec. Thousands of jobs are also linked to Québec’s famous maple syrup industry, which represents over 90% of Canada’s production, while activities like the harvesting, in forested areas, of other plants like blueberries or the Canada yew, highly sought-after for its pharmaceutical properties, are growing in importance. Meanwhile, Québec’s network of protected areas has grown from 2.9% of Québec’s territory in the late 1990s to over 5.5% today, as the province works to protect at least 8% of its territory by the end of 2005.
Participating in forest management
Ensuring that these various uses of Québec’s forests can cohabitate as harmoniously as possible is, of course, a complex task. “Making sure that all users are treated with consideration, and conciliating the presence of many users on the same territories is one of the most important challenges facing Québec’s forestry management system,” says Marc Ledoux, the associate deputy minister for Forests at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks.
Québec’s forestry management system has evolved considerably in order to help this multi-usage conciliation process. In the late 1990s, an in-depth public review of the system led to the drafting of a number of new legislative measures, which were adopted by Québec’s National Assembly in May 2001 and have gradually come into effect since then.
A fair number of these recent measures look to increase the involvement of stakeholders in the planning of forestry operations, a movement that has accelerated considerably in recent years. “Over the course of the last two decades, we’ve gone from providing information to consultation to participation”, sums up Mr. Ledoux. “ The process began at an administrative level in the 1990s, and was made into a formal part of the system, at the legislative level, in 2001.”
Increasing public involvement is seen as a way to improve the acceptability of forest management methods and forcing all stakeholders to interact and take each other’s perspectives into consideration. Jacques Gauvin, the director general of the Québec Forest Industry Council, the sector’s main association in the province, points out that the consultation policy “is a concerted effort to make the process more transparent” and thus a good way to reinforce the industry’s credibility.
Now, public consultations are required for a wide-range of subjects, including: general policies and programs concerning the management of both public and private forests; public land use plans; the indicators used to evaluate the performance of logging rights holders; the protection of exceptional forest ecosystems; the determination of forest protection and development objectives (soil and water protection, ancient forest preservation, etc.) within each forest management unit, as well as any significant amendment to the Forest Act. The re-drawing of the management units that compose public forests and the definition of a northern boundary to commercial management, following the 2001 review of the Forest Act, was the first major step in this process—along with a public consultation on the public consultations policy itself.
Although they are called by the minister of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks, the consultations are primarily managed by regional authorities. The goal is to allow stronger participation at the regional level, and to make sure that policies can be adjusted to the specific requirements of each region. In the same spirit, the Forest Act also states that consultations involving Aboriginal communities must be adapted to better take into account their traditional activities and values.
In the years leading to the 2001 legislative amendments, many had called for such a process to be included in the public forest management system. Still, the introduction of a systematic consultation process was met with a certain dose of skepticism “For many people, the first reaction is to say that consultations aren’t any use, that they won’t change anything. I can tell you that certainly isn’t the case,” says Richard Savard, the person in charge of forestry issues at the Conference regionale des élus du Bas-Saint-Laurent, a forum of elected representatives from this region of Eastern Québec. Indeed, a recent survey of consultation participants by the ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks showed that about 70% of participants felt their opinions were taken into account as policies were developed.
“There have been two major consultations since the 2001 legislative reform,” Mr. Savard explains. “The first one was about the reorganization of the territorial units for forestry management. People actively took part in that one, there was plenty of time to prepare, and the government listened. The result was really wonderful. The second one, in the fall of 2003, was concerned with the introduction, in the five-year management plans used by logging right holders, of the new forest protection and development objectives. That one was not quite as successful: with the many complex subjects involved, people were less able to intervene in a fully knowledgeable manner. Still, the process is a clear improvement over the past.”
Gilles Lavoie and Anne Stein, two of the people responsible for organizing the public consultation processes within the ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks, point out that the system is still quite young, and that adjustments will be introduced, over time. “We need to change perceptions and ways of thinking, to reduce the level of mutual apprehension, and that takes years to accomplish”, points out Lavoie.
“Consulting is a way to help make the best possible decisions,” says Anne Stein. “We hope that it will allow the ones to be more understanding of the others, and that public consultations will increasingly become a forum for dialogue.”
 Because Québecʼs provincial forest management strategy relies largely on natural regeneration a good deal of attention is devoted to protecting sprouting seedlings and their vitality as well as soil stability and nutrient production. |
One area given special consideration, in this context, is the participation of Québec’s 11 Aboriginal Nations in the management and development of Québec’s forests. Today, partnerships are beginning to emerge where tensions and loudly expressed discontent—if not pure and simple mutual ignorance—were more often on the agenda.
“Fifteen years ago, the people involved on either side hardly knew the names of the people across the table,” sums up Jean-François Gravel, director of Aboriginal Relations at the Ministry of National Resources. “Now, people are talking, and often on a regular basis.”
The best example of the considerable change in the nature of the relationship between First Nations and the government of Québec is the signing of a new and innovative agreement between Québec and the Cree people living in the greater James Bay area, in the northern part of the province. Signed in February 2002, this “Peace among Braves”, as Cree Grand Chief Ted Moses named it, put an end to two decades of legal battles and often tense relations between the Cree and the Québec government. It is a wide-ranging, fifty-year deal involving hydroelectric development, mining, forestry, wildlife and community development. The signing of this “nation to nation” agreement was a watershed moment that has highlighted a change in the tone and substance of relations between Aboriginal peoples and the government of Québec. Within a few months, a similar, twenty-five year agreement had been signed with the Inuit people, the Cree’s northern neighbors.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Cree representatives had actively campaigned on the international scene to make their disagreements with the Québec government known. Today, they are regularly appearing in international forums, including various United Nations organizations, to present the 2002 agreement as an example for governments all over Canada and all over the World.
At the forestry level, a Cree-Québec forestry board, along with joint working groups in each Cree community, started working in 2003, in order to put in place an adapted management system taking into account traditional Cree activities, the location of trap lines used by Cree fur trappers and of culturally significant sites, as well as wildlife management considerations. An article in the winter 2004 issue of Eeyou Eenu Nation, the Grand Cree Council’s magazine, pointed out that recent months have been “exceptionally productive”, as the Cree-Québec joint working groups completed important work like the complete mapping of trap lines, and the establishment of protected areas and wildlife interest areas within the territory covered by the 2002 agreement.
Québec Forest Industry Council’s Jacques Gauvin describes the discussions between forestry companies present in the area and the Cree authorities as “cordial” and wide-ranging: “proposals by both sides have covered issues such as job training, management overview, and the way the new rules may affect supplies and employment levels for Cree and non-Cree workers.”
The agreements signed in Northern Québec are by no means the only examples of this change in outlook. For instance, the modernization of Bowater’s sawmill in the town of Maniwaki, in western Québec, took place in large part thanks to a five-year partnership signed between the company and the Algonquin first nation of Kitigan Zibi, an immediate neighbor to Maniwaki itself. The community has signed a five-year agreement to deliver its wood allocations in Québec public forests to the Maniwaki plant, thereby contributing over a quarter of the supply that the plant needs for its annual production of 135 million bfm.
In north central Québec, an agreement between the ministry, forest companies active in the region and the Manawan Atikamekw community have defined community involvement in the forestry management decision-making process and allowed a growing number of young Atikamekw to be employed in local forests. At a time when the forestry industry is increasingly concerned about renewing an ageing workforce, nearly 100 young aboriginal workers will be doing sylviculture work this year, up from 67 in 2003.
Other agreements of varying scope have been signed or are being negotiated with several other Aboriginal communities all over Québec. Although outstanding issues remain in some regions—tensions with the Long Point Algonquin First Nation, in Northwestern Québec, delayed the beginning of the harvesting season in the area’s public forests, this spring—the climate has changed considerably over the last few years. “There is a much better mutual understanding of everyone’s point of view,” says Jean-François Gravel. “It’s no longer a question of one side wondering what the other wants to take away from them.”
 Forintek is the only research center in eastern Canada that is entirely dedicated to wood product development. It's headquarters in Québec's capital, Québec City, showcases the structural and creative possibilities for engineered wood products. |
Indeed, conciliatory attitudes will be needed across the board, as Québec’s forest sector sees more change on the horizon. For instance, limits in the expansion of available supply and changes in the context of international trade are pushing companies to increase secondary and tertiary processing. Québec is aiming to ensure that such changes still allow the industry to remain present all over the province, in order to sustain regional economic development.
Also, an independent commission on the management of Québec’s public forests was called late last year to ascertain whether the system is fully meeting its objectives. Numerous regional and national associations, forest companies, wildlife managers and environmental groups have made representations in this new round of consultations on Québec forestry. The commission’s report is expected by the end of 2004, and will likely include recommendations reinforcing integrated forest management in Québec’s public forests, in order to further improve the balance between social, economic and environmental factors.
Enacting such changes would certainly be a new test of Québec’s capacity to generate constructive dialogue between forest sector stakeholders.
Managing Québec’s Public Forests
Public forest management in Québec is governed mainly by the Forest Act and its regulations. Its stated objectives are sustainable development, accountability and public participation in the decision making process. It promotes management methods that favor natural regeneration of Québec’s forests, in order to preserve the characteristics of each ecosystem.
A central aspect of the Act is the Timber Supply and Forest Management Agreement (TSFMA), a twenty-five year contract offering long-term supplies to the forest companies, in exchange for managing the forests in a manner that will maintain or improve productivity and, through a series of protection and development objectives, preserve its biodiversity. Several agreement holders can cohabitate on a single territorial unit; they then become collectively accountable for the management activities and their results on the whole territory.
By law, such agreements are reviewed every five years, and extended for a further five-year period, insofar as the holder has fulfilled its obligations. Harvesting is allowed within the limits of a determined allowable annual cut meant to ensure stable supply levels, and companies pay the Québec government stumpage fees calculated in direct relation to the price of standing wood on the marketplace.
As part of their obligations, TSFMA holders must draw up five-year General Forest Management Plans that describe the management strategies and activities and the silviculture work that is to take place over that period of time. Under the provi-sions of the Forest Act enacted since 2001, Agreement holders are now obligated to include municipal authorities, Aboriginal communities, wildlife area managers and other stakeholders in the preparation of these plans.
"We must always consider the environment and people together, as though they are one, because the
human need to use natural resources is fundamental to our continued presence on earth."
P.O. Box 1290, Bigfork, MT. 59911 • Tel: (406) 837-0966 • Fax: (406) 258-0815 • Email:
human need to use natural resources is fundamental to our continued presence on earth."