Hullabaloo over caribou: caribou conservation plan limiting wood supply.

• Author: Cowan, Liz

The woodland caribou is becoming as controversial as it is elusive since provincial conservation plans for the species may result in drastic reductions of wood supply in the Abitibi River Forest.

Those conservation plans are threatening the livelihood of those who depend on the forest and northeastern Ontario mayors fear their communities will be devastated in the next three decades.

Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis, who has worked in the area in the forest industry, said he has only seen onecaribou, which was 150 kilometres north of town.

"If there are caribou in this part of the country, there are only one or two and (they are) just stragglers," he said. The mayors and other organizations want the government to focus its conservation efforts in areas where the caribou are known to exist

The draft long-term management direction (LTMD) of the Abitibi River Forest calls for an immediate 25 percent reduction in sustainable timber volume available to industry and a 65 per cent reduction in less than 30 years. The forest is 3.5 million hectares and takes in communities such as Iroquois Falls, Timmins, Cochrane.

While the LTMD includes all aspects of forest management, the new. requirement to meet the Endangered Species Act and the caribou conservation plan requirements set by the province has compelled the planning team of Abitibi River Forest Management Inc. to follow them.

Woodland caribou were classified as threatened in Canada in 2002 by the Committee of the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and similarly designated under the provincial Endangered Species Act.

"The mayors' concern of reduction in wood supply is real," said Paul Fantin, forest program manager with Abitibi River Forest Management. "There is a reduction, primarily due to the implementation of the caribou management requirements."

The trend in reduction of wood sup ply has been documented earlier but it was marginal, he said.

"Once you start to apply the caribou requirements, what happens is that downward trend is exasperated.

"It is serious, absolutely serious, and the mayors are justifiably concerned about some of the information they have seen so far and the planning team needs to consider that."

The direction is currently in draft form, he said, and has undergone a 30-day review where the public could comment. The planning team must consider the feedback and can come up with a revised version of the direction or keep the original one.

Earlier this fall, the mayors of...