Woodlot owners anxious to get industry back to table

The head of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners is cautiously optimistic that the provincial governments halt order for cutting lumber on Crown land will be the necessary catalyst to get big forestry companies back at the table.

Andrew Clark says the relationship between private woodlot owners and J.D. Irving Limited and Twin Rivers Paper Company has been "confrontational" and "dictatorial".

"Weve been simply told, Look, were not buying any of your pulpwood. You know, thats just been an announcement to us from [J.D. Irving Limited] in particular, and Twin Rivers [Paper Company] have shut off private wood because they have too much inventory.

"Well, we didnt create the oversupply, they created it from their own resources on Crown land," he said.

Woodlot owners say they havent been able to sell pulpwood for months as a result of an overabundance of product caused by recent mill closings and because forestry companies are taking their supplies from Crown land at low prices.

Enforcement, penalties unclear

On Tuesday, Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup announced he has issued ahalt order for cutting pulpwoodand whole-tree chipping on Crown land.

Softwood pulp from Crown land must remain on the harvest site or roadside, Northrup told the woodlot owners during their annual meeting in Sussex.

He said he will ensure industry buys private wood first although he did not say how the new rules will be enforced.

"Well make sure that that happens," was all he told CBC News.

Its also unclear what, if any, penalties industry will face for non-compliance.

Still, Clark said he detected some determination in the Northrups tone and notes the minister has broad powers under provincial legislation.

He believes one penalty available to the minister would be to reduce a companys allocation of Crown land for harvesting.

Regional issue, says JDI

J.D. Irving Limited spokeswoman Mary Keith did not offer a response to Clark's comments.

Instead, she said the company isstill awaiting plans due May 1 from the marketing boards advising of the available supply wood. "We must ensure a regularly scheduled flow of wood to keep our mills running," Keith said in an email.

"It is important to note that over the course of the past winter private wood deliveries were much higher than what was planned," she said.

"We kept our gates open and JDI accepted double the wood originally forecasted by marketing boards."

Since April 1, JDI has purchased 87 per centof the pulpwood volume the company had purchased last year during the same time frame and 27 per centmore saw logs and studwood, said Keith.

"The pulpwood problem is a regional issue," she said. "Nova Scotia, Maine, Quebec and Ontario have all reduced pulpwood consumption over the past year."

Significant losses

Clarksaid its "very positive" the minister has "taken some decisive action."

Woodlot owners have been asking the provincial government to step in "for quite some time," he said.

"Its very important to us we get our share of the market."

'We hope this becomes the catalyst to get us back to the table and industry will take a mature attitude towards this and negotiate in good faith and set up some deals and the problem will be solved.' Andrew Clark,New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners

Clark said he sympathizes with contractors who are caught in the middle, who cut trees on Crown land and are now going to incur costs from having to leave wood at the roadside without being able to get revenue.

"We know what thats like," he said. "Over the past five years our private woodlot owners revenues are down by $250 million, so we know what thats like.

"But Id like to just clarify that we woodlot owners did not create this situation. We are not the problem, so I hope we dont get blamed for that."

Clark stressed that private woodlot owners only supply a fraction of the industrys needs estimating about seven per cent for J.D. Irving Limited.

"So were not a big problem really. Were a relatively small problem. What we need here is a change in attitude on doing business," he said.

"We hope this becomes the catalyst to get us back to the table and industry will take a mature attitude towards this and negotiate in good faith and set up some deals and the problem will be solved."