N.B.'s new forest plan protects more Crown land from industry, minister says

New Brunswick is taking steps to protect more Crown forest, consult First Nations on forestry management, and allow for uses other than timber harvesting, Natural Resources Minister Mike Holland said Wednesday.

Holland announced a long-term strategy for Crown forests that he said will see the percentage of protected Crown forest increase to 30 per cent from 23 per cent.

At the same time, Holland said, practices such as herbicide spraying and clear cutting, which the forest industry has used over the past 40 years, will allow cutting to continue at the current rate —  or a potentially higher rate  — without expanding the area where timber can be harvested intensively. 

"We're going to create more opportunity for the industry to benefit and grow from the same footprint," Holland said, referring to about 20 per cent of Crown forest.

Holland said about another 50 per cent will also allow timber harvesting, but with "an eye towards natural regeneration, an eye towards hardwood, an eye towards ensuring structure stays in harvested areas so that we have different age structures going forward."

The strategy will also see a reduction in the amount of hardwood that is destroyed to "long-term sustainable levels," by leaving more residual canopy and legacy trees, according to a report also released Wednesday.

The province will accelerate spending on silviculture programs that will see increased planting following the harvest of tree stands that were planted in the 1980s and 1990s.

Another key part of the strategy will see 5,000 hectares of Crown land leased out for maple syrup production.

But Green Party Leader David Coon said the new forest strategy is mostly a win for the timber industry.

While the province will conserve more Crown land, Coon said, he's concerned intensive harvesting will expand into new parts of Crown land.

"What they're doing is increasing the area within the industrial forest that will be farmed rather than managed as a forest, so they will obliterate another 400,000 acres of natural Acadian Wabanaki forest and replace it with tree plantation," Coon said.

Asked about Coon's criticism of the plan, Holland responded later on Wednesday saying Coon's interpretation of the strategy was inaccurate.

Holland said what will get newly targeted for harvesting are specifically balsam fir trees that were planted in the 1990s, which are now mature and faring poorly because of climate change.

He said the plan won't see new areas of clear-cut Crown forest but will see a focus on harvesting balsam firs  and replanting them with spruce trees.