Forest Management Planning
Ontario has entrenched its goal of forest sustainability in the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA), which provides the administrative and regulatory mechanisms that ensure Ontario's Crown forests are managed sustainably. One of the most important requirements of the CFSA is that all Crown forests be managed in accordance with a forest management plan.
The purpose of the forest management plan is to ensure that forest management activities conducted on the Ottawa Valley Forest will ensure the long term health of the forest while providing for communities dependent on its resources for jobs, recreation, and other social values. This has been achieved by striking a balance between social and economic objectives, objectives for forest diversity, and objectives for other values dependent on forest cover such as habitat for wild life, water and soil resources.
The forest management plan is prepared for ten years (April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2031) and is composed of two principal and integrated components. The first component describes the development of the long-term management direction including harvest levels and silvicultural strategies that emulate, within human and technological limits, the natural disturbance intensities and patterns characteristic of this forest region. The desired long-term outcome is a forest mosaic that emulates the natural composition, structure and patterns, of the forest region, thereby providing for the long term health of wildlife and other resources.
The second component of the forest management plan is the operating plan, which describes and quantifies the areas to be harvested, renewed and tended; the construction, maintenance and use management of forest access; aggregate extraction; monitoring and assessment and fire prevention and preparedness. The operating plan also describes the prescriptions, conditions, standards and guidelines under which all these activities will occur in order to minimise any adverse effects to other forest values. Direction for these prescriptions was taken from the most current Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (hereafter MNRF) forest management guides. The approved forest management plan text, supporting maps and documentation, as well as subsequent plan amendments are available online on the FMP Online (gov.on.ca) site.
Annual Work Schedules (AWS) are prepared each year to describe annual operations. Following approval by the District Manager the AWS is available to the public for inspection for 15 days or until April 1st, whichever is longer. Annual operations may commence once the inspection is complete. AWS documents and maps, including AWS revisions are also available on FMP Online (gov.on.ca).
Annual Reports are prepared each year to assess progress towards planned levels of forest operations and to report on significant events and the results of all aspects of the monitoring and assessment programs. Annual reports are normally submitted by November 15 of each year and when approved, are posted to the FMP Online (gov.on.ca).Â
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