Press Release
Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists
November 5, 2002
Submitted by: Cliff Bennett
Field Naturalists Focus On Community Forest Plan Â
When the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources downloaded management of County forests to County governments last year, the County of Lanark decided to appoint a team of three experts (The Management Team) to set up a Business Plan to manage the lands. Part of the team’s mandate was to involve the public in consultations throughout the process. Recently, the management team, produced a draft of the plan and sent it out to various groups for comments. Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists (MVFN) was one of those groups.
MVFN has been involved with the process since the beginning. They attended public meetings and responded to survey questionnaires. MVFN member and Chair of the MVFN Natural Resources Issues Committee Dr. Jim Bendell, participated on the plan’s advisory committee. Recently, a small group of interested MVFN members met to pour over the Draft Plan and submit it’s comments on behalf of MVFN.
Key to the response to the Draft Plan was an appeal for inventory of all of the natural aspects of the community forested lands, recognizing that good management of these resources cannot proceed in an orderly way without knowing what is there. In a call for a broadening of the vision for our community lands, MVFN also appealed to the County for more public input into the final document before it goes to County Council on Nov. 13, for approval.
Recognizing that our community forested lands contain more values that just timber production, values such as tourism, recreation, social and spiritual attributes, MVFN recommends that these lands always remain within the public domain on behalf of the people of Lanark County.
MVFN welcomed the opportunity to participate in this important challenge and offers to help to advance the cause in anyway it can. Overall, MVFN congratulates the Management Team of Jim McCready, David Oliver and Chair and chief facilitator Gord Harrison for championing this project. Through their efforts and the process, the public is now aware that these lands exist.
