Executive summary

This Five-Year Environmental Assessment Report on Forest Management is prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) to meet Condition 57 of Declaration Order MNR-75, MNRF’s environmental assessment requirements for forest management on Crown land in Ontario.

Declaration Order MNR-75 (DO) was made under the Environmental Assessment Act and approved by Cabinet in 2015. It consolidated and replaced previous Declaration Orders MNR-71 and MNR-74 and addressed amendments requested by MNRF.

Condition 57 requires MNRF to report to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) once every five years. This is the third Five-Year EA Report that MNRF has submitted to MECP. It addresses the period from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2018.

The information in this report demonstrates MNRF’s implementation of the 61 conditions in the DO and demonstrates MNRF’s commitment to the sustainable management of Ontario’s forests.

Some of the conditions in the DO changed with approval of the new DO in 2015 while many remained the same. Some of the new requirements were phased in, therefore, there is little implementation experience to report on for those requirements at this time.

The 61 conditions of the DO are organized under seven categories and a short synopsis of the activity in each category is provided in this summary:

  • Forest management planning
  • Monitoring
  • Reporting
  • Continuing development and programs
  • Provincial wood supply strategy
  • Negotiations with Aboriginal peoples
  • Administration

MNRF also provides a final overall perspective on opportunities to improve the environmental assessment approvals process for forestry on Crown lands to better align with the Crown Forest Sustainability Act and the forest policy framework.

Forest management planning

Conditions 1-34 of the DO contain many of the same requirements from the previous two Declaration Orders but there are some new requirements. The new requirements were incorporated into three forest manuals regulated under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA). The revised forest manuals were approved by Cabinet in July 2017.

MNRF has not gained enough implementation experience with the new requirements to report effectively on them. No forest management plans were prepared and approved during the reporting period based on these forest manuals. There were several FMP amendments, FMP extensions and Annual Reports prepared according to the new requirements.

The report highlights the positive contributions made by the local citizens committees in the preparation and implementation of FMPs and recognizes some challenges in these committees fulfilling their roles. The public and Aboriginal communities also contributed to the FMPs. MNRF continued to support refinements to enable improved participation.

Key forest management planning issues MNRF experienced include:

  • ensuring background information is available to support planning
  • managing access roads considering all users
  • lack of attention to annual reporting on forest operations
  • the significant time and resources required to work with MECP to process requests for individual environmental assessment

Monitoring

Conditions 35-38 of the DO provide direction for management unit (MU) and provincial level monitoring including:

MNRF continued to maintain a Forest Operations Inspection Program. This included maintaining a Forest Compliance Handbook, completing inspections, making forest operations inspection reports available for Independent Forest Audits and making annual summaries for forest operations inspections available to the public.

Independent forest audits, required by the CFSA, were carried out for 38 MUs during the reporting period. All independent forest audits completed are made available online once they have been tabled in the Legislature.

A comprehensive review of the silvicultural effectiveness monitoring program was completed during the reporting period resulting in revisions to three forest manuals regulated under the CFSA. Beginning with 2020 FMPs, all FMPs will incorporate the new approaches to assessing past performance of silviculture activities, preparing silvicultural ground rules, regeneration assessments and reporting.

MNRF continued to conduct long-term trend monitoring on representative wildlife species and investigate wildlife population monitoring methods. During the reporting period, MNRF:

  • implemented the multiple-species inventory and monitoring program
  • monitored moose populations to support moose harvest allocation decisions and FMPs
  • implemented moose surveys every winter; conducted forest bat monitoring every summe
  • revised the Wildlife Population Monitoring program

Reporting

Conditions 39-40 of the DO provide direction for reporting. MNRF and sustainable forest licence holders prepared Management Unit Annual Reports identifying the forest operations that were conducted for each MU. MNRF prepared the Provincial Biennial Report on Forest Management summarizing all the Management Unit Annual Reports. MNRF also posted the forest indicator information supporting the State of Ontario’s Natural Resources – Forests 2016 report on Ontario.ca.

Although Management Unit Annual Reports were submitted annually for every MU in the AOU, the report highlights the need to address the timeliness and quality of the submissions. Provincial level reports required by the DO were prepared and tabled in the Legislature during the reporting period. Concerns with the process for making reports available to the public have been identified along with potential solutions to enable improvements.

Continuing development and programs

Conditions 41-56 of the DO provide direction for other programs that support forest management.

MNRF maintained regional and provincial level committees to provide advice to MNRF on forest management and related matters and reports on the need to ensure that advisory committees continue to provide relevant and effective support to MNRF’s forest management program.

MNRF developed, reviewed and revised Guides used in forest management planning and implementation according to the required Guide review schedule. Science programs contributed to the review of Guides and supported the requirement to investigate the effectiveness of Guides. Key highlights include:

  • completion of the Silvicultural Guide in 2015
  • review of the Forest Management Guide for Great Lakes-St Lawrence Landscapes in 2015
  • review of the Forest Management Guide for Conserving Biodiversity at the Stand and Site Scales from 2015-2017

During the reporting period, MNRF continued to improve its understanding of the vulnerability of forests to climate change. This improved understanding will help inform options for adaptation. Ontario's forests play an important role in storing carbon and can play a role in mitigating climate change. In late 2015, MNRF published a discussion paper for public comment to initiate dialogue on the role of managed Crown forests in mitigating climate change and conducted a forest carbon science forum in late 2017.

MNRF supported the government’s efforts towards climate change mitigation by sharing information with MECP and Ontarians as demonstrated in the release of State of Ontario’s Natural Resources - Forests 2016. MNRF and MECP have also supported national efforts to develop and implement a land use carbon inventory for Ontario.

MNRF is required to maintain a Protocol (PDF) to provide direction for road water crossings to prevent, minimize or mitigate effects of forest management activities on fish and fish habitat. During the reporting period, MNRF revised the Protocol in conjunction with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans with a focus of the revisions on lessons learned from implementation of the Protocol over the last decade and modernization of approval processes.

MNRF is required to ensure that information management systems are developed and used to support FMPs. During the reporting period, MNRF maintained and enhanced several systems that support forest management including:

MNRF also updated the Forest Information Manual (PDF) that provides for the exchange of information between the forest industry and MNRF.

Both the Ecological Land Classification program and the Growth and Yield program continued during the reporting period. Key field work continued as did science and research work. Major results included refinements to policy and program direction based on new information provided from this research work.

MNRF continued to investigate full-tree harvest and full-tree chipping studies and their impact on shallow soil sites. A 20-year study investigating the effects was completed during the reporting period. The emerging research results provide direct support of MNRF’s Biofibre Directive and the guidance provided in MNRF’s Stand and Site and Silviculture Guides with respect to biomass harvesting.

During the reporting period, MNRF continued to ensure maintenance operations (for example, tending and protection programs) were being conducted in line with current scientific knowledge and policy direction. MNRF also ensured related policies were developed and or maintained. Specific policy efforts included the development of the Invasive Species Act and initiation of the development of a Forest Pest Strategy. MNRF also continued to collaborate with research partners including an international partnership in forest pest management research.

MNRF’s key efforts to maintain and further develop data systems and analytical methodologies centred on FMP requirements. Key areas of focus included supporting planning for the conservation of biodiversity, landscape management analysis and wildlife habitat supply analysis. Efforts were also focused on the continued development and integration of spatial and economic considerations in the determination of sustainability and the continual update and improvement of the Socio-Economic Impact Model.

Professional and technical training programs continued to be provided throughout the reporting period focusing on forest operations compliance in 2014, policy transfer sessions with respect to the revised forest manuals in 2017, and Guide training throughout the reporting period.

MNRF continued to contribute to public education regarding the management of Ontario’s forests by providing information and collaborating with organizations involved in the administration and delivery of educational programs in forest management. In addition, MNRF developed, published a paper version and posted on Ontario.ca, a handbook and a brochure to assist those wanting to participate in forest management planning activities.

Provincial wood supply strategy

Condition 55 of the DO requires MNRF to maintain a Provincial Wood Supply Strategy. During the reporting period, a project was initiated to update the Provincial Wood Supply Strategy and to investigate moving from a static provincial strategy to a more dynamic strategy that would permit more timely and responsive information on anticipated wood supply issues and approaches to address them.

Negotiations with Aboriginal peoples

Condition 56 of the DO requires MNRF District Managers to undertake negotiations with Aboriginal peoples to enable the sharing of benefits from forest management planning. MNRF District Managers continued to negotiate with Aboriginal peoples at the community level about opportunities to increase benefits to Aboriginal peoples from participation in forest management. The forest industry has supported many of these conversations with Aboriginal communities. The results of negotiations have taken different forms given the unique needs, capacities and situations of Aboriginal peoples and considering the variety of situations that exist across the AOU. MNRF identified some challenges with implementing Condition 56 requirements due to dated condition language.

Administration

Conditions 57-61 of the DO contain administrative requirements MNRF must implement. The report discusses these requirements and identifies potential improvements to the Five-Year EA Report and the DO amendment process. It also provides summaries for the implementation of the conditions that address transition provisions and phase in of conditions of the DO.

Other significant matters

The report identifies other significant matters affecting forest management in Ontario including: the current economic situation; changes in forest tenure arrangements including opportunities for Aboriginal communities; developments with the Métis in Ontario; Endangered Species Act implications; consideration of Open Data; and technological advances in forest management.

Summary

MNRF will work with MECP, (as part of the implementation of Ontario’s Environmental Plan), to consider the role of the Environmental Assessment Act in the management of Crown forests in the future given the status of MNRF’s policy framework for sustainable forest management and its many components, evolving government direction and this report.

With the submission of this report to MECP, MNRF has met the requirements of Condition 57 of the DO.

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