Your OWA at Work The Communications Committee
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embers of our Executive Committee met with Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry staff and with Minister Yakabuski in February. A number of themes were discussed including support for our various projects and strengthening the Managed Forest Tax Incentive Program (MFTIP) so that what the OWA offers in products and services is more available to program participants through OWA membership. Our Executive maintained that this would help to further encourage good stewardship and proactive use of best management practices as part of the MFTIP. Our Community Forest Owners Cooperative Pilot Project is progressing very well. Heideman Forest Services has committed to be our industrial partner for the Fleetwood Pilot, with Eleanor Reed of Kawartha Chapter working as our lead on the ground. We should be harvesting properties by early summer. Meetings with the partners in the Huronia/Couchiching Pilot have gone well, with the approach now well-defined and willing landowners identified. A University of Toronto Master of Forest Conservation (MFC) student—Shan Shukla, has also joined the project to help objectively analyze our Cooperative model. Both the Kawartha Land Trust and the Couchiching Conservancy have been excellent partners with these pilots. There are thousands of hectares of plantations across Ontario that are in need of thinning. The long term vision of the OWA is that what we learn from the pilots can be applied to other areas of the province. The Woodlot Economics Study Phase 2 is back on track with another University of Toronto MFC student—Ben Gwilliam, now on board. Murray Woods-TreeDimensions will be working with Ben to process existing LiDAR data for the United Counties of Prescott-Russell into useable forest inventory, allowing analysis and modeling of specific case study landowner data for economic value based on applying best forest management practices. The project is already generating interesting preliminary Erica Dixon information and thematic 6
Thematic map of canopy cover derived using LiDAR data for the United Counties of Prescott-Russell
map products using the LiDAR data, and promises to inform the larger project we will be undertaking in the near future with the Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio Economy (CRIBE) to develop private land forest inventory and a silvics library for southern Ontario. A number of funding proposals have been submitted with respect to our new projects. The list includes the Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund, CRIBE, MNP, Ontario Power Generation (OPG), Cascades Pulp and Paper, Forestry Futures Trust, and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). Funding from CRIBE, MNP and Cascades has already been committed, and we remain optimistic for the outcomes of the other proposals. In terms of events and activities, we have started to organize our virtual conference and annual general meeting for April 22nd to 24th, 2021. Stay tuned through our e-newsletter and e-news blasts for more information and to register. Also, we have set the dates for Woodlands Appreciation Week for May 8th to 15th, 2021, and have already started to plan province-wide media outreach. Planning for special events and activities is also underway. You will notice that this issue of the Ontario Woodlander (Vol. 102) has been delivered with a Mark’s Work Warehouse discount card. Mark’s has agreed to provide these 10% discount cards for all OWA members and families for the next two years! In closing, the OWA is pleased to welcome Erica Dixon to our staff. A graduate from Richard Ivey
The Ontario Woodlander—An Ontario Woodlot Association Quarterly. Issue 102, March 2021
