Woodlot owners skeptical over Crown cutting halt

Woodlot owners are skepticalabout whether Natural Resource Minister Bruce Northrup's halt order for cuttinglumber onCrown land will be effective.

Federation President Andrew Clark said the announcment is good news for the federation but said the devil is in the details.

"Well, it's positive for us," Clark said.

"Any amount that you want to bring in, but at an unrealistically low price, woodlot owners' wood is still going to sit on the roadside."

Some members of the federation question if the minister can enforce the pulpwood haltsince he hasn't set any penalties for non-compliance.

The ownersgathered for the annual meeting of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners in Sussex on Tuesday.

They said they have not been able to sell pulpwood for months as a result of an overabundance of productcausedby recentmill closings.

Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup says he has put a stop to that by issuing a halt order for cutting pulpwood and whole tree chipping on Crown land.

Northrup told the annual meeting of the woodlot owners federationthat he was acting to resolve a "major crisis" in the abundance of softwood pulp on the market.

Northrup said he will ensure that industry buys private wood first.

He said softwood pulpwood from Crown land must remain on the harvest site or roadside.

The Minister said he is setting up a Forest Sector Competitiveness Committee involving government, industry and woodlot owners to look at long term solutions.

Contentious issue

The future of the province's Crown lands and private woodlots has been a contentious issue in the province.

Woodlot ownershave expressedangerover big companies taking cheap wood from Crown land.

TheCrown Land Task Force reportwas submitted to Northrup's office in November 2011.

The report was one of two used to assess wood supply objectives for both Crown land and private woodlots.

The task force report said there are no easy solutions to ease the controversy.

"We see no easy solution to overcoming the imperfect market conditions for wood from private woodlots in New Brunswick," the report said.

The authors of the report also indicated that the $6 million in provincial funding set aside each year for silviculture or planting new trees for private woodlots is not spent in an efficient manner. By comparison, the provincial government spends $24 million each year for silviculture on Crown land.

One statistic that is clear is that less wood is coming off private woodlots.

The market share for the private woodlot sector fell to nine per cent in 2010-11 from 28 per cent in 1990-91.

"Many woodlot owners see themselves in direct competition with the Crown, and in their opinion, the Crown keeps its wood prices low to stimulate economic benefits and indirect revenue generation," the report said.

The Natural Resources minister has said in the past that he wants to strike a balance between protecting the forests and not hurting the struggling industry.