Forest Management in New Brunswick: the Jaakko Pöyry Study, the Legislative Select Committee on Wood Supply, and where do we go from here?

Abstract

In late 2001, the New Brunswick Forest Products Association submitted a letter to the New Brunswick Minister of Natural Resources, which triggered a three-year sequence of events whose potential to change New Brunswick forestry is more profound than any development since passage of the Crown Lands and Forests Act 25 years ago. Forestry in New Brunswick has risen to a level of prominence in the public and professional consciousness that is unprecedented in recent decades; the public voice is louder and stronger, industrial concerns are greater, and the economic vulnerability of the province is clearly evident. In this paper, we chronicle these events and identify some resulting and important challenges that confront the New Brunswick forestry community as it faces the future. The forestry community faces huge challenges to create a healthier forest and forest economy, which will require concerted, coordinated, and constructive efforts of practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers from the domains of social, management, and environmental science. Key words: forest policy, intensive forest management, public hearings, public participation, future directions of Crown land management