Owners decry a ‘broken system’ that is resulting in continually diminishing returns for the small players
Rick Doucett says the private woodlot sector in New Brunswick is on the verge of economic collapse, a troubling situation that the province’s new forest strategy fails to address.says if the Progressive Conservative government keeps favouring big wood-cutting companies that use public land to make large profits, the province’s 400 or so private woodlot owners will simply give up and sell off their land any way they can.
Doucett used his own situation as an example. He owns 500 acres of mixed hardwood and softwood stands, split between two properties near Fredericton, in Nasonworth and Rusagonis.“Houses are creeping up to my woodlot. I could get more from a one-acre building lot than I could from cutting 25 acres. So the pressure’s going to be there for a woodlot owner to get something for his or her property because no one seems to understand how bad their economic situation is.
That system, he says, was thrown into disarray when the McKenna Liberal government of 1993 decided to change policies and give the big companies quicker access to Crown wood. “We’ve reverted to the days before the marketing board when we were just price takers. If we want to sell wood, we’re told what the price is and that’s all there is to it. The negotiation system is a farce.”, an association that represents many of the major wood-cutting firms , has long argued that what the federation of woodlots owners wants is a form of supply management that always favours the seller at the buyer’s expense.
Forest NB hasn’t given a thumbs up or down on the new strategy – executive director Kim Allen says the industry is still talking to provincial government officials to understand fully how it will play out – but she does note that it touches on a significant perk for private woodlots, The Private Woodlot Sustainability Fund.
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