A community in Newfoundland is fighting to protect areas in and around their town from the provincial government’s plan to clearcut local forests. After having their concerns rebuffed by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change for years, concerned citizens say they’ve been left with no choice but to turn to the courts for relief.
In early 2022, the Minister released the province’s Five-Year Forestry Operating Plan for Crown Zone 2 from environmental assessment under the province’s Environmental Protection Act. The Plan allows clearcutting in an ecologically sensitive area of approximately 11 square kilometres in the Southwest River Valley, as well as areas in and around the Town of Port Blandford.
Members of the public first raised concerns in response to the 2017 Forestry Plan for the same area. Despite years of sustained public opposition to clearcutting, the 2022 Forestry Plan is nearly identical to the 2017 Plan, and actually permits more cutting, extending into increasingly sensitive areas in the Southwest River Valley. Although the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture has not yet begun harvesting in the area, the 2022 Forestry Plan allows them to begin clearcutting at any time.
The fight to protect the community’s forests has been led by a local grassroots group called Citizens Against Clearcutting (CAC). Among their concerns, CAC says clearcutting would negatively impact the economy by jeopardizing the thriving eco-tourism industry in the area, decreasing residents’ quality of life, and hurting local ecosystems and wildlife.
The province’s plan doesn’t include a buffer around every wetland, stream, or larger waterway in the area, threatening water quality throughout the entire downstream watershed. Clearcutting would also destroy sensitive wildlife habitat in the Southwest River Valley that is home to many at-risk species such as caribou, lynx, pine martin, and osprey. The plan would also lead to the destruction of habitat along a salmon river; Atlantic salmon play an important role for those that live along the coasts of Newfoundland and are central to the cultures, diets, and economies of many Indigenous Peoples. Deforestation will negatively impact the area’s major industry, eco-tourism, which will have devastating economic effects on local communities.
In early March 2022, CAC and the Town of Port Blandford, represented by Ecojustice, submitted an appeal to the Minister arguing he was legally required to order an environmental impact statement for the Plan due to significant public concern on the issue. The Minister dismissed this appeal. Now, CAC has brought their fight to the court to have their voice heard and hold their government accountable for protecting the forests in and around the community of Port Blandford.