By Kelly Louiseize
Remote logging roads are opening up access to fly-in resorts, devaluing their worth and reducing wildlife population says outdoor tourism director.
Executive director for Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario Doug Reynolds says logging roads have opened up paradise for zealous local anglers and hunters and a mechanism is needed to regulate accessibility into logging roads.
“If the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is the landlord for crown lands we want them to invest the equity wisely,” he says.
“MNR has an obligation to balance and maximize value.”
This means harvesting white pine for furniture; not wood burning, it means maintaining the remoteness of some lakes because studies indicate they are three times more valuable, he says.
Intrinsically, there has to be a balance between drive-in tourism operations and fly-in outposts. Both are required to meet consumer needs.
Land users including tourism outfitters, mining and forest companies need to collaborate on a planning process that would regulate the “recreational use of motorized vehicles on crown land.”
Restricting access in designated areas will prevent the erosion of remoteness, keeping fly-in fishing and hunting camps at premium revenue values.
“The logging company is not impacted by this in any way. They are legitimate natural resource users as are the local trappers and prospectors.”
Decommissioning a road entails removing culverts, bridges and at times erecting a gate with a sign prohibiting users from entering.
It may stop the trucks and trailers, but not ATV drivers, says one forest company spokesperson.
Domtar’s director of Ontario’s forest, Brian Nicks, says “people don’t appreciate having restrictions on them,” and at times this comes out in public meetings when forestry plans are being developed.
There is an alternative Reynolds suggests. Under the Lands for Life process enhanced management area (EMA) prohibits trespassers from entering onto the well-marked EMAs.
Such places already exist in the North for the protection of tourism outfitters and wildlife habitat.
Peter Street, general manager of the Vermillion Forest Management Company Ltd. and the Nipissing Forest Research Management Inc. has areas around Kukagami Lake under an enhanced management plan. The problem is the MNR does not have enough human resources to enforce the restricted zones, he says.
Reynolds has appealed to the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines and the Ministry of Health Promotion on this matter. Out of the four, the Ministry of Natural Resources has been more hesitant to embrace the idea, since they will have to institute the changes to the Public Lands Act.
Reynolds says implementing EMAs will be better than “the death of a thousand cuts we are suffering during every forest management plan.”
Little by little roads are encroaching and the MNR now has to play referee while the value of remoteness dwindles he says.
Some recreational users of crown land expect the forest industry to produce new roads into remote lakes that have not been fished before.
“It has become a cultural expectation in many northern communities,” Reynolds says.
“They believe it is their God given right.”
When this happens the “lodge is no longer a viable fly-in tourism property.”
Historically, lumber companies have respected the seclusion factor for such outposts and have built detours to discourage avid fishermen or hunters from entering remote areas. Resource Stewardship Agreements came to light to build formal business-to-business contracts with road developers, but Reynolds says it has not deterred eager gamers.
