The provincial government confirmed it received the letter. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Environmental Issues

P4 Trapping Block council calls for moratorium on logging

Oct 30, 2019 | 4:57 PM

Members of the P4 Trapping Block at the north end of Montreal Lake are calling on the provincial government to immediately impose a moratorium on all logging practices in the area.

In a letter to Minister of Environment Dustin Duncan written by Harold Johnson, he wrote P4 has been targeted by the department and industry for intensive forest degradation. He alleges the ministry has mismanaged the forest to the point it will never recover and the policies the ministry relies upon are based on conjecture and speculation with no science to support them.

“We have been watching for a long time how the decimation of the forest has been impacting the population of animals in our territory,” Jonhson said. “We had no consultation with government regarding this. They simply have not talked to us. We have not had consultation with industry, the industry just comes out and tells us what they are going to do, and you can take it or leave it.”

Johnson is particularly concerned about the amount of logging occurring because the P4 block contains one of the last remaining herds of woodland caribou, which require an intact habitat for their survival. He believes the ministry and industry have knowingly targeted the caribou habitat by increasing the size of the cut blocks.

Trappers in P4 are also concerned about the targeting of old growth forests by reducing “the already too low requirement to leave 15 per cent of old and very old forest down to a mere seven per cent.” Johnson noted leaving only seven per cent puts the forest in a dangerous position in the event of forest fires, droughts or storm damage.

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“The amount of cutting right now is so severe the forest in our area is not going to recover,” he said. “Critical habitat is being destroyed. The caribou at the rate they are harvesting now are not going to recover. Caribou is just a large animal we can see and count, but nobody has counted the lynx or marten or fisher or beaver for that matter.”

The letter also includes issues with the large amount of wood product being left behind by industry to either rot or burn. With the clearcutting taking place, Johnson added the number of species of both plants and animals are greatly diminished.

larongeNOW reached out to the Ministry of Environment for comment on the letter and in an email it was confirmed the ministry did receive it. The ministry is also currently working on a response.

“Once this response has been shared with the representatives of the P4 Trapping Block, we would be happy to respond to your questions,” the email states. “We believe it is important for the P4 Trapping Block to hear from the ministry directly, rather than through another source.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno