SOLACE WILDLANDS FAX ACTION CENTRE

Fax to Ontario Minister of Natural Resources

Please feel free to edit the content of the fax below as you see fit.

Date:
To:	The Honourable Linda Jeffrey, Minister of Natural Resources
Subject:	Re: Forest Management Plan for the Sudbury Forest for the 10-year period April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2020

The Honourable Linda Jeffrey, Minister of Natural Resources
Room 6630, Whitney Block, 99 Wellesley St. West, Toronto, ON  M7A 1W3
Phone: 416-314-2301    Fax: 416-325-5316
Re: Forest Management Plan for the Sudbury Forest for the 10-year period April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2020

Dear Minister Jeffery,

I am aware that Vermillion Forest Management's recent efforts to build a new crossing of the Sturgeon River have failed. I would like to communicate my support of this decision to Ontario Parks and the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). A new logging road crossing one of central Ontario's last wild rivers would have undermined the integrity of the Temagami Park Management Plan (PMP 2007) and resulted in the devastation of an ecological and recreational treasure at the expense of ecological integrity (EI) and the authority of the Temagami Land Use Plan (TLUP).  I am also pleased to know that the MNR has made some modifications to cutting plans in Special Management Area 49 as a result of concerns brought forward in the issue resolutions process.

However, I continue to have serious concerns with logging operations in Special Management Area (SMA) 49 (Yorston River/Selkirk Creek), and in other areas adjacent to important Parks and Reserves.  In particular I am concerned about the large clearcut allowed for the area bordered by Solace, Sturgeon River and Lady Evelyn Smoothwater Provincial Parks.  This area is part of the Solace Wildlands, one of the few remaining intact roadless areas in the central part of this province.  The fact that this roadless area is directly adjacent to three Parks makes it even more significant, as a favoured site for non-motorized recreation, and for the protection of ecological values.  Conservation Biology shows that island parks are not successful in protecting biological diversity unless they are extremely large.  The Parks system in the Temagami area must be expanded in order to meet their ecological mandate, and they must have substantial buffers around them, and corridors connecting them, in order to prevent the dangerous island Park effect.  The Solace Wildlands should be part of this expanded protected areas system, and must not be ecologically compromised by logging and road building.

The extensive clearcutting and road building planned for the Solace Wildlands is also not compatible with the "land use intent" outlined for SMA 49 under the TLUP. TLUP clearly states that SMA 49 is supposed to be managed for park-related values.  I am confused as to how clearcuts and road building reflect a management intent that places ecosystem integrity, and non-motorized remote tourism ahead of resource extraction. Clearcuts of the kind proposed for the Solace Wildlands are the antithesis of management for multiple values; they obliterate all non-timber values. Clearcuts in SMA 49 abutting provincial parks will make it harder for Ontario Parks to control access and protect park-related values, and will greatly diminish ecosystem function.

For the above reasons I recommend:
1) The formation of an advisory body with the aim of filling in the gaps in the Temagami area park system. This might include the expansion of existing parks or the formation of new parks in the area between the Sturgeon River and Lady Evelyn Smoothwater Provincial Park.
2) A minimum 1km buffer (reserve) along all park borders in SMA 49. This will help protect park-related values, and ecosystem integrity within the SMA while leaving some opportunities for resource extraction available.
3) A management unit wide commitment to interpret the EI provisions of the Parks and Conservation Reserves Act (2006) to pertain to parks themselves and not merely the "features within a park which the park is intended to protect," and a recognition that activities adjacent to Parks can compromise the ecological values within Parks.
4) A moratorium on clearcuts greater than 260 Ha within SMA 49.
5) A commitment to no net increase in road density within SMA 49. This will prevent an already intractable access control problem from becoming an even bigger burden for MNR / Ontario Parks staff.
6) A minimum 120m reserve on all current and historical canoe routes and portages within the SMA.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my concerns. I look forward to your response.


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