Norfolk declines invitation to join forestry database

Tom Masschaele, Norfolk Ward 1 Councillor

Luke Edwards

Advocate Correspondent

Their forests may be a point of pride for Norfolk County officials, but councillors have turned down an opportunity to join a national database on protected forests.

Despite some interest, councillors at the Nov. 13 council-in-committee meeting voted against a report, and a follow up amended motion, that would have seen some or all of the forested area that’s owned and managed by Norfolk County entered into the Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas database.

Inclusion would have potentially opened up opportunities for federal funding to pay for forestry management, however fears over the feds ultimately taking some level of control over the county’s forests was enough to keep councillors from supporting the recommendation.

“I’m in support of this initiative, I just also have the same concerns about a designation being applied in the future,” said Mayor Amy Martin as she tried to get an amended motion passed following the initial denial.

The request for support came from the Long Point Biosphere Region. The Canadian government has a target of conserving 30 per cent of its land and water by 2030, and the database is used to track that progress. Traditionally it included areas such as national and provincial parks, but the federal government is opening it up to include areas managed by lower levels of government.

To entice municipalities to include their managed forests in the database, the federal government has dangled the possibility of funding.

“This opens the door, hopefully, for that additional funding,” said Coun. Tom Masschaele, who supported the original request and said the database is simply for accounting purposes and there was no threat of future designation or regulation.

His comments echoed what was said earlier in the meeting when Long Point Biosphere Region’s conservation director Sarah Emons spoke in support of the staff recommendation.

“We’ve been assured every single time that there’s no plan for legislation or regulation. This is simply an accounting measure to report,” she told councillors.

Southern Ontario’s tree coverage is relatively low, thanks in large part to the amount of development. Less than three per cent of this part of the province is recognized as protected at the federal level, a staff report said. Norfolk is a leader, with an estimated 25 per cent forest coverage. Emons said protecting coverage in this part of the province is vital, not only because it’s already limited, but also because the Carolinian zone in which Norfolk is located is an extremely important ecological zone with some of the highest biodiversity in the country.

“It’s definitely a point of pride,” she said, of Norfolk’s high percentage of forest coverage.

“We have a lot of biodiversity here that needs preserving.”

Emons told councillors that the municipality could in the future ask the federal government to remove a piece of land from the database should they decide to change course.

Martin’s amendment sought an additional staff report to come back looking at the county-managed forests and recommending some that were obvious candidates for the database while leaving out any that the county may want to maintain full control over.

However, when that failed council simply voted to receive the report for information.