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Atlantic
Forestry, March 2009 |
A Word or Two
(editorial comment)
Harvesting biomass, under the influence
Nova Scotia woodlot owners
are right to ask what's in it for them
There is a paradox governments come up against when they set
out to limit or control something that is potentially destructive.
They can't just let this activity go unchecked, but any regulatory
system they put in place will look like an official stamp of
approval. It's worse when the government stands to benefit from
the restricted activity. The most obvious example is alcohol
the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation being one of those regulatory
agencies that has truly found its calling in the marketing business.
What was once to use a thoroughly old-fashioned term
a vice, becomes a legitimate sector of the economy that should
be promoted, as long as the letter of the law is followed. (The
technical term for this is hunky-dorification.)
This is the situation faced by Nova Scotia's Department of Natural
Resources as it develops guidelines for the harvesting of forest
biomass. The sector may not promise tax revenue on a bacchanalian
scale, but it could provide other benefits for the province,
including demonstrable progress toward environmental targets,
and some small measure of energy self-sufficiency.
Almost everyone agrees using biomass for energy would be good
for us as least in moderation. There is considerable debate,
however, about what constitutes moderation. And biomass boosters,
generally speaking, tend to think big. What they envision is
not a cottage industry, but a significant economic sector that
depends on obtaining vast quantities of a cheap commodity.
So this matter of establishing guidelines has proved to be a
bit dicey. To its credit, DNR initially sought a broad range
of perspectives. Wade Prest was asked to join the provincial
biomass working group as a representative of the Nova Scotia
Woodlot Owners and Operators Association (NSWOOA), of which he
is a member. But Prest became frustrated with the working group's
haste to publish guidelines and its unwillingness to delve deeper
into sustainability issues, so on direction of the NSWOOA board
he recently withdrew from the process.
"There was a lot of tokenism but no real desire to get
into the question of whether our forests could take being harvested
heavier than they're already being harvested," Prest said.
"It's another one of these exercises, to say 'We did this,
we did that,' but the objective was just to get these guidelines
in place."
Along with Bill Freedman, a Dalhousie University biology professor,
Prest advocated for a literature review to get a better handle
on the ecological effects of biomass removal, but DNR representatives
said the required funding was not available. Freedman also ended
his involvement with the working group; he said he could not
commit more time to a process that appeared to be "all talk
and no walk."
Prest believed that the nutrient budget computer model developed
at the University of New Brunswick was being presented as a silver
bullet for sustainability, when in fact it would provide "only
a tiny piece of the puzzle," taking no account of micro-nutrients.
And beyond the scientific nitty-gritty, he was concerned about
the bigger picture for woodlot owners who will be offered biomass
revenue as a bonus for selling stumpage.
"A dollar or two a tonne; that's the kind of price they've
been suggesting. The idea is, 'You get your site all cleaned
up and ready for planting at no cost.' But people are not being
told the whole story," he said.
"It's more and more into high-mechanization clearcutting.
They can't harvest it at high costs, it has to be harvested at
low cost none of which fits with going into a small woodlot
and doing a bit of work scattered throughout. NSWOOA promotes
a more sensitive and less intensive type of forestry, and biomass
promotes the opposite. We're most interested in the small private
woodlots, and what applies to the small private also applies
to the Crown land, which belongs to everybody."
DNR sees a need to provide some direction for the industry right
away, by releasing interim guidelines that can be amended as
we acquire better tools for assessing sustainability. What Prest
saw was the hunky-dorification of biomass removal.
"Once the private sector starts to invest millions of dollars
in plants and equipment, then that becomes the tail that wags
the dog, and it's too late to talk about how much we can take
from the forest. I pointed that out, and that was another place
the committee did not want to go."
What's troubling here is that the process continued without
direct input from the small private sector. Andrew Fedora, executive
director of the Federation of Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners, has
also expressed doubt about the sustainability of large-scale
biomass harvesting and the benefits for private landowners.
"We don't have a clear indication of what you should or
shouldn't remove. I would prefer to see regulations that are
a bit more cautious instead of having people go in there and
rake all the material off the forest floor. And I don't see any
point in having a biomass industry unless there's some value
for it. If any landowners were getting involved with it, I would
caution them and tell them to make sure they know what they're
doing."
Fedora made his concerns known to DNR, but the Federation was
not afforded representation on the working group. "We even
offered, not just myself but members of our board," he said.
"At the end of the day we are disappointed there isn't stronger
input from woodlot owners. You have to be at the table to have
that dialogue. Submitting written comments or whatever is not
the same, otherwise they wouldn't have a working group."
As of late February, Jamie Simpson remained a member of the
working group, representing the Ecology Action Centre, a Halifax-based
environmental group. He continued to advocate for a more conservative
approach, as laid out in a position paper he published in December
2008. (Read or download this lucid document by following the
link at www.AtlanticFarmer.com.)
The current movement to collect large proportions of biomass
from harvest sites seems to Simpson like backsliding, given the
progress that has been made in raising awareness about the importance
of leaving various kinds of wood behind. He cites the FSC (Forest
Stewardship Council) and CSA (Canadian Standards Association
Z804-08) woodlot certification standards, and even Nova Scotia's
Code of Forest Practice, which warn against the removal of tops,
branches, and deadwood. "I've been pushing DNR to go to
private woodlot owners, to caution them that whole tree harvesting
isn't the best thing," he said.
In Nova Scotia, where half the forest land and an even greater
proportion of the wood supply is in the hands of those woodlot
owners, it is important they are well informed and engaged in
the development of the biomass sector. Then if they decide that
getting into the energy business will help to achieve their financial
and forest management objectives, more power to them.
David Lindsay
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