The Rural Voice, 1996-10, Page 32alternative. Modeled on successful
stocker sales where small producers
can assemble their cattle into lots for
buyers, the group's idea is to provide
a central auction, perhaps in Durham,
twice yearly in mid -winter and in the
spring. Here someone with, say, six
logs, could bring his logs and put
them with others for auction. The
idea would also•accommodate the
small buyer by having a sawmill set
up right on location. A hobby
woodworker could buy a couple of
cherry logs and have them sawn into
lumber right on the spot. Specialty
items like burls and wood canker
which have a small, but significant,
market, could also be sold at these
auctions.
"The network has decided to focus
on the marketing end of things,"
Faught says. As part of its education
program, the Networkalso plans a
woodlot tour this fall.
Education is also one of the aims
of the Woodlot and Sawmill
Operators Association. Started
four years ago in eastern
Ontario, it has spread to the west
only recently. The Huron -Perth
chapter is planning a tour of MNR's
St. Williams Tree Nursery. On
November 2, it plans a field day in
the Stratford area. "Hopefully we can
take up part of the slack (of the
MNR's cutbacks)", Roland says. But
an added difficulty is that people are
not making use of the information
that's already out there, he says. Too
few farmers realize the potential of
their woodlot.
Roland is both pleased and
disappointed in the support for his
group in the early going. He's
pleased because there are 75 paid-up
members who are very supportive of
the work but disappointed there
aren't more. "We could easily handle
300 members," he says but it's hard
to get the word out about what the
group is doing. "We're not reaching
as many people as we could be. It's
like the Soil and Crop Improvement
Association — you can either join
and get information out of it or you
can leave it alone."
Smith worries about another
repercussion of MNR's withdrawal
from forestry in southern Ontario.
"Reforestation is something I hope
doesn't go by the wayside," he says.
Many of the plantations planted over
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the years need attention to control
weeds and grass and prune the trees.
"Hopefully they won't ignore them,"
he says. In addition, many of the
older plantations are getting close to
40 years old and should be thinned.
Smith had been working with a group
that was trying to develop the
economic potential of marketing the
thinned trees. He worries this work
will be lost.
Grey Bruce Forestry will offer
weed management control and tree
pruning services, as well as hand or
machine planting of trees. While
MNR will still provide trees to
landowners, it will not provide the
planting services it once did.
Lost too is the one-stop feature of
MNR services where one office
could provide all the services a
woodlot owner required. Smith says
he hopes to do that for his clients. He
may not do pruning or planting
himself, he says, but he knows
reputable people who will.
While the high timber prices make
the MNR's withdrawal of services
more serious at the current time, the
potential for gain for landowners also
makes them more willing to pay for
advice, helping the new consulting
services get established. MNR's
complete withdrawal of services has
made it easier for the consultants,
says Smith. "If I'd had to start from
scratch with no client base it would
have been very tough. I'm dealing
with clients I had over the years."
Eccles says he and Taylor at
Lands and Forests Consulting are
working a larger area than they did
when they worked for MNR. "We're
going wherever the work takes us."
Though they're concentrating on
Grey -Bruce, they're ventured as far
as Espanola and Minden to take on
projects. They've been extremely
busy and in mid-September were
.considering adding an extra
technician to handle the work.
One of the changes that has
brought work for consultants
has been the reinstatement of
the Managed Forest Tax
Rebate. Introduced in 1973, the
rebate worked the same way the farm
tax rebate did, to reduce the tax
burden of maintaining private -lands
forests. That program was killed in
1993 by the NDP government but
was reintroduced last spring for