Kevin Murphy, assistant deputy minister with the Ministry of Environment presents some highlights of the report (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

State of the Environment: A Focus on Forests

Provincial government releases report on forests

Apr 17, 2019 | 5:26 PM

There is room for the province’s forests to grow, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Environment.

“We have a sustainable forest, we have a sustainable forest industry, we’re looking for growth in that forest industry, right now they’re only at about 43 per cent utilization of their forest allocation, so there’s room for that to grow,” Assistant Deputy Minister Kevin Murphy said.

Murphy was in town for the Association of Saskatchewan Foresty Professionals’ annual general meeting.

While the report is overall positive, Murphy said there are areas where the government could improve on what they are doing.

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“We’ve got some work to do around managing our roads and trail network. We’ve got some work to do to maintain caribou sustainability,” he said.

In putting together the report, the ministry looked at five categories: productivity, resilience, conserving biological diversity, sustainable forest management and economic and social benefits.

Besides the environmental sustainability, the government’s most recent report also showcased the high level of involvement that Indigenous peoples have in forestry.

“Saskatchewan’s very proud to have the highest level of Indigenous and Métis peoples participation in the forest industry in all of Canada, that’s throughout all the way from the working level all the way to CEOs,” Murphy said.

Along with having high labour participation, Murphy explained many Indigenous communities have their own allocations which allow them to benefit.

In terms of challenges going forward, Murphy said the majority of disturbances in the forests come from non-human activity.

“It’s actually insect and disease that are responsible for the majority of disturbance in the forest,” he said.

Saskatchewan’s forests do face some potential challenges in relation to climate change, as the mountain pine beetle has been helped by it. Currently, the beetle has not been found in the boreal forest and the provincial government is working with the Government of Alberta to stop the spread.

A large crowd was on hand to hear Murphy and others speak (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

From an economic standpoint, Shane Vermette, the executive director of forestry development with the Ministry of Energy and Resources said the industry is on solid footing.

“We just came off our best year of forest product sales in over a decade where we sold over $1.2 billion worth of forest products in 2018,” he said.

Vermette said roughly 8,000 people across the province are directly or indirectly employed with forestry.

According to Vermette, the industry in the province has bounced back from where it was in the years between 2006-08, when the P.A. mill closed.

“We have eight large forest products manufacturing facilities in the province currently and actually seven of eight are operating and have been for several years now. Many of them are at or near capacity,” he said.

The success in forestry can be credited to the U.S. market and increased demand in Asian markets as well.

Looking forward, Vermette said the market conditions are right for the industry grow and that if the P.A. mill had been up and going, the province would have broken all time sales records for forest products.

“We’re still optimistic that Paper Excellence will make a decision over the coming months to refurbish and retrofit the facility and our hope is it’ll be back up and running by as early as 2021,” he said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn