October 2003
The silver lining in the BSE storm cloud
Ontario may be well placed to take advantage of the new realities imposed by this crisis. But more accurate age verification will be needed to meet the 30-month export limitby DON STONEMAN
Mike McMorris, executive director of the Ontario Cattlemen's Association, thinks there may be a silver lining in the BSE cloud for Ontario producers. The reason: Ontario is in the best position of any of the provinces to deal with some of the new realities of the post-BSE age.One of those realities is that export markets don't want cattle older than 30 months. The United States has taken the rather extraordinary step of allowing imports of beef cuts, as long as they are from "young"' cattle less than 30 months of age. But, says McMorris, "the definition of 'old' needs some work." Age isn't easy to determine and heifers and steers don't come with birth certificates, at least not yet.
Currently, the age of cattle in a packing plant is determined by dentition, the science of determining age by examining teeth. Bone ossification is another method. Both methods are problematic because they work best post-mortem and old dead cows, or old dead heifers for that matter, can't be returned to the owner. If 10 animals in a shipment of 500 are pulled aside because their teeth show that they are older than expected, "what do you do with them?" McMorris asks.
There is no question that we are going to have to find a better way of measuring age than dentition, McMorris says, and records may be the answer. "We are going to have to take our record-keeping systems and make them jump ahead about 25 years," he asserts.
This sounds daunting, since beef producers aren't known for keeping databases on their cattle inventories. Still, Ontario is likely better off than any of the other provinces, McMorris says. Producers have Beef Improvement Ontario and the Beef Herd Improvement program to back up the national tagging system. Extra enhancements for meat buyers are environmental programs such as the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) and nutrient management plans, which may be useful in promoting Ontario beef. And then there are on-farm food safety programs.
The result may be a pool of what McMorris refers to as age-verified, source-qualified calves coming from farms that have been through on-farm food safety programs that have EFP, and have a Nutrient Management Plan. "If we can put them all together, it will make a nice package."
However, he admits that a sales job may be needed. "There is an element of trust (required) in relying on a database or records" as opposed to looking at teeth and bone ossification, he says.
Another benefit of this BSE crisis may be the opening of the Canadian border to cattle from the United States. American cattle have generally been kept out of Canada for animal health reasons; imports may bring blue tongue and anaplasmosis with them.
But Jim Clark, manager of the Ontario Cattle Feeders Association, points out that the blue tongue fly doesn't exist in the Great Lakes basin and anaplasmosis is treatable with tetracycline. "If we don't (open the border), we're not going to have the trade," Clark says, noting that U.S. producers "consider this as not being fair trade." He says the purebred livestock producing organizations are on side.
Beef producers may look back on the pre-BSE time as halcyon days. "I don't think our industry is going back to where we once knew it before this happened," Clark says. BF
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Two Ontario abattoirs poised for growth
With meat from older animals barred from the United States, there are more opportunities for small killing plants here. But the regulations are toughby DON STONEMAN
In the midst of all the negative publicity about provincial meat inspection in general, a couple of abattoirs are quietly starting up or expanding in mid-western Ontario.East of Mount Forest, Frey's Custom Meats was expected to have moved into a new 15,000 to 16,000 square foot facility on Highway 89 by late September. And south of Hanover on Highway 6, West Grey Premium Beef Inc is planning a start-up later this fall.
Frey's Custom Meats has been operating out of a building beside Eldon Frey's farmhouse since 1988 and his plant now has nearly 4,000 square feet. The province has been raising the standards, forcing abattoir operators like Frey to think about getting bigger in order to stay in the business.
Frey, who refers to himself as "old-order Mennonite," says the changes in regulations forced him to make major changes. "It comes to the point where it was either get in right or get out," he says.
The new plant is located on a lot adjacent to the end of his laneway, where his old customers won't be able to miss it. He has rented his land out to devote himself fulltime to his growing business.
The number of provincially inspected abattoirs in Ontario has been trending downward in recent years as increasingly stiff regulations came into place. Currently there are 124 plants licensed to kill beef cows, and 133 plants licensed to kill steers. Many plants do both.
But, says Frey, the changes in regulations actually offer some opportunities. "There's potential to upgrade to federal (status). Old cows are going to have to be butchered somewhere in Canada, the way the border is."
Frey says his plans are still up in the air and, for now, the new plant will continue killing, chilling and processing beef for home freezers. The plant will be licensed to kill red meat animals, pigs, veal and sheep as well as beef. The kill floor could kill 60 head of cattle a week or "a couple of hundred lambs or sheep." but the plant would run out of storage capacity.
"We'll see which direction we go," Frey says. "If we go to kill and chill, there's more in and more out." Animals are killed and hung for about 48 hours.
Blueprints for the new facility call for 22 employees in total, including the retail store. Eight would work in the killing area and 12 in the processing rooms.
The new provincial regulations mean that a plant must be a certain size in order to be licensed, Frey says. Separate rooms are required for sausage kitchen, wrapping room and smoked meat processing and for a smoke cooler. Raw and cooked meats must be clearly separated in order to prevent cross-contamination. Frey says he has tried to build to meet future regulations.
West Grey Premium Beef Inc., south of Durham, is expected to open in November with three partners -- Chesley grocer Peter Kniffel and feedlot operators George Maxwell and Doug Calhoun. Maxwell feels it is still too early to talk about their plans.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's Dr. Faisal Bedwei, network chief for food of animal origin and animal products, says it's not clear when a new meat code standardizing inspection rules across the country. A revised draft of the code has been circulated to the provinces and a meeting is expected soon. All the provinces may not decide to adopt the code at the same time, he says.
Complying with the national meat code still isn't the same as having federal inspection status, Bedwei says. The applicant must "apply to us and submit blueprints."
Federal standards for product flow and construction materials must be met and a federal inspector must still insure that the packing plant is up to snuff before it gets Ottawa's nod. BF
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U.K. research suggests a tighter link between Johnes and Crohn's disease
The furore over BSE in Canada has temporarily pushed Johnes disease off the CFIA's radar screen. But pressure may come from the dairy industry for a national Johnes certification program to allay possible consumer concernsby DON STONEMAN
Research conducted in the United Kingdom and published in July has drawn the connection a little tighter between Johnes (paratuberculosis) disease in dairy cattle and Crohn's disease in humans.At a different time, this might have been the ammunition needed to get funding for a national Johnes certification program for the dairy herd. Overwhelming everything, however, is the furore over BSE in Canada's cattle industry.
"BSE shot everything else off the rails," says Wayne Lees, national co-ordinator of the Johnes certification program for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). A national workshop on Johnes had been scheduled for this fall. However, the ongoing crisis over BSE has pushed Johnes off the CFIA's radar screen.
"It's not been forgotten about," Lees says. "We will continue to work on Johnes Disease and a voluntary control program. But for the next few months, BSE will consume most of our efforts."
Ann Godkin, a veterinarian with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, says the new U.K. research was undertaken to see if the bacterium that causes Johnes is found exclusively in Crohn's sufferers or also in people suffering from other bowel disorders.
"The (Johnes) organism has been recovered from Crohn's patients before," Godkin says. The rebuttal to previous research has been that perhaps people with bowel disorders "are prone to getting the (Johnes) bacterium and that's why it is there," Godkin says.
The British research, conducted by Dr. John Herman-Taylor at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London and published in the July 2003 Journal of Clinical Microbiology, was aiming to recover the bacterium from the guts of Crohn's sufferers and those suffering from other diseases with similar symptoms.
The study concluded that patients suffering from Crohn's disease are far more likely to have the bacterium causing Johnes in their intestines than sufferers of similar enteritis and colitis diseases, who also have poor immune systems. This reinforces the theory that the bacterium causing Johnes was there first. Godkin stresses that it isn't positive proof and the study is still being reviewed by other scientists.
"If this paper stands up to the scrutiny of the scientific community, we have two groups of people with 'leaky guts' -- one group associated with the Johnes bacterium and one group that is not," she says. "It is kind of suggesting that the organism may be associated with this disease," Godkin says.
Before it is widely accepted by scientists, the study must be repeated elsewhere. It must also be conducted "in our jurisdiction" to make sure that it applies here as well, she says.
What does this mean to the dairy industry? Opinions on this vary. Godkin says it has serious implications because some people are exposed through dairy products. She points out, however, that the Johnes-causing bacterium does not survive in large numbers in milk. "It has always been a known fact that there are other exposures -- water for one," she says.
Inspected meat is not a source. Testing meat at slaughter does not yield positives. Deadstock is another matter, because that's where animals that get the disease end up, Godkin says.
For the dairy industry, the biggest threat now is that publicity from this research may make consumers concerned. "You can imagine that if you are selling dairy products and people decide they are dangerous, it is not going to help you to market your product," she says.
Godkin believes that there will be pressure from the dairy industry to respond to this research. "You can't take that kind of risk, especially if it is something you can do something about."
Wes Lane, director of communications at Dairy Farmers of Ontario, says Dr. Herman-Taylor spoke about this research at the University of Guelph and in Ottawa last winter. With the furore over BSE, consumers paid little attention to the report. "It may have got a blip for day or two," he says.
With resources at CFIA aimed at BSE, there is no support for a testing and culling program. Godkin says any such program must be national and that this would be a good time to work at ridding the national herd of Johnes-positive animals. With the border closed to the United States and cheap heifers available, it would be timely for producers to look ahead and cull suspect cows from their herds. BF
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Future of proposed new dairy export plan remains uncertain
Export milk producers are still hoping that Ontario's agriculture minister will come up with an answer after she rescinded a favourable appeal tribunal rulingby DON STONEMAN
by DON STONEMAN Export milk producer Chris Birch remains in the dark as to what Agriculture Minister Helen Johns has in mind when she proposes that a national milk export program be introduced.However, he is holding out hope that his company, Georgian Bay Milk Producers, will remain in business, even though Johns rescinded a Farm Products Appeal Tribunal decision in the summer that was in Georgian Bay's favour. "I could sell that milk and 10 times more than that," Birch says.
Birch, who milks cows with his family near Elmvale, between Barrie and Penetanguishene, says that "until we get some answers, I won't criticize the government for what they have done. Maybe they had good reasons. I don't know."
When a World Trade Organization (WTO) appellate body ruled last December that farmers couldn't sell milk at high domestic prices and also sell into the export market, provincial dairy organizations ordered export programs shut down.
Some producers, such as Birch, who don't sell into the domestic market, claimed that the WTO ruling doesn't apply to them. Birch argued before the Farm Products Appeal Tribunal that the ruling doesn't apply to Georgian Bay and that Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) didn't have the power to shut them down, and on June 4 the Tribunal agreed.
DFO appealed the decision to the agriculture minister and finally, on July 23, Johns rescinded it. Producers already contracted to Georgian Bay have until Nov. 30 to wrap up their business.
Birch disagrees with reports that the minister was overwhelmed with letters of support for supply management and against the milk export industry. He says that his lawyer has received copies of all the letters received by the minister on this issue. ""Ninety two per cent were in favour of letting the (tribunal) decision stand," Birch says. Johns also charged Deputy Minister Frank Ingratta with the task of trying to set up a new national export plan that will work in harmony with supply management. The details on this are still sketchy.
Some producers are even more up in the air than Birch. Jacqueline Fennell and her husband John Conklin milk 25 cows at Spencerville, south of Ottawa. They were hoping to sign on with Georgian Bay when the Farm Products Appeal Tribunal decision was reversed.
Previously, they were getting nine cents a litre for milk shipped through DFO. Cows are freshening faster than they dry off. "We are feeding the milk back to the cows," Fennell told Better Farming.
With the border to the United States closed because of BSE, cow prices are at rock bottom. "It's not an option to sell (cows) for a loss when it's all that we've got," says Fennell.
Fennell and Conklin tried to get their license back from DFO but were refused. They hope to take the issue to the tribunal in October. No date has been set.
DFO's policy is to keep over-quota milk shipments to a minimum so as to avoid reducing quota to licensed quota-holding producers in the future. BF
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The magic and mystery of clouds
Beautiful and awesome, these wonders of nature act as a climate thermostat and provide us with one of the essentials of life. Their complex behaviour is also a nightmare for weather and climate modellersby HENRY HENGEVELD
Last evening's stroll at sunset reminded me once again how fascinating clouds can be. The layer of stratus cloud, which had seemed so depressing during the day, began to take on a life of its own. The interplay of light from the sinking sun with the bottom of the cloud layer changed the cloud colours, within minutes, from a rosy pink to a fiery red, then purple and eventually to a deep blue.I always find such a kaleidoscope of colours awe-inspiring -- enough so that we have kept a painting of such a sunset on our living room wall for the past 25 years. It is a poor reproduction of the real masterpiece that the Earth's skies can provide us day after day, but it is a reminder.
Summer cumulus clouds, while quite different, can be fascinating in quite a different way. They often start in the morning as fluffy cotton balls floating in a bright blue sky, then evolve, as the day progresses, into intricate assemblies of white and gray cloud masses.
With a bit of imagination, it can be easy to visualize cartoon characters or other images in them. That one is Mickey Mouse, this one is Pluto, there's a train, a boat, a horse or some other object our minds conjure up. By late afternoon, these same clouds often develop into towering cumulo-nimbus structures that stretch up, blob upon blob, into the upper reaches of the sky.
Occasionally, they can spawn eerie formations and hues that are simply awesome, even scary. Other days, all you can see are small wisps of cirrus far above, like the light stokes of an artist's brush on a blue canvas.
Clouds look no less fascinating from the top down. Each time I fly somewhere, I spend much of the time gazing out of the window at the cloud deck below -- like a wavy ocean surface, with the odd island sticking out. That's when those towering thunderclouds, which can reach more than 10 kilometers above the surface, can look their most impressive.
It's now been some 40 years since I began to look at clouds as more than just a picturesque aspect of the Earth's unique atmosphere. In my university course work and laboratory studies (much of which I have now forgotten), I began to understand the processes by which droplets form on condensation nuclei, once the local atmospheric water vapour content became saturated.
I learned how small droplets coalesce to form larger droplets, how these droplets interact with ice crystals to form electricity and how, eventually, they gravitate to the ground below as precipitation. Too much or too hard, and the precipitation can cause devastation -- floods, erosion, hail damage, water-logged fields. Too little for too long, and we get a meteorological drought.
I learned that these processes involve convective action, and are influenced by global circulation patterns that transport moisture from source to destination and determine dominant storm tracks. And I began to understand the importance of clouds as the source of one of the essentials of life -- water.
During the past two decades, I have spent a lot of time trying to understand a third function of clouds -- their role as a climate thermostat. It is here that the science of clouds becomes really complex.
Each little cloud droplet is like a shiny sphere that reflects light energy from the sun and absorbs heat energy rising from the Earth below. However, the amount of energy reflected or absorbed depends on the size of the droplet. It also depends on whether or not it has frozen into an ice crystal and what shape that crystal has assumed, on the density of the droplets/crystals, on the depth of the cloud, on its elevation, and other variables. These variables change from one meter to the next, and one minute to the next.
Add up all the droplets present in a cloud, and the effect on the flow of energy to and from space can be quite significant -- sometimes cooling, sometimes warming. In mid-day, for example, clouds reflect much more of the incoming sunlight than they absorb outgoing heat radiation.
Hence cloudy days are, on average, cooler than sunny days. It's the reverse at night, when there is no sunlight to reflect but heat continue to be emitted to space from the heated surface below that clouds can trap. As a result, cloudy nights are generally warmer than clear nights.
Averaged over time, the net effect of clouds on the heat flow through the atmosphere depends on their amount, type, altitude and other factors. Denser, low-level clouds, for example, generally reflect more sunlight than they absorb in outgoing heat, and so their presence cools the climate. On the other hand, high-level cirrus clouds, which are made of ice crystals, are relatively transparent to sunlight but do a good job of capturing outgoing heat. Their presence thus warms our surface climate.
Needless to say, the complex behaviour of clouds is a nightmare for weather and climate modellers. Getting the characteristics and properties of clouds correct is essential to getting the atmospheric heat flow correct. Heat flow, in turn, drives the dynamics of the atmosphere, and hence the evolution of weather systems. That is a challenge that neither increasing scientific knowledge of the microphysical processes involved nor the tremendous advances in computing power have as yet adequately resolved. Clouds remain one of the main causes of uncertainties in model predictions.
It reminds you of the words to the well-known Joni Mitchell lyric: "I've looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow, it's cloud illusions I recall. I really don't know clouds, at all." BF
Henry Hengeveld is senior science advisor on climate change at Environment Canada.
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Putting the three "Rs" to work for Ontario agriculture?
Making ethanol from corn or farm waste, harvesting spider silk from tobacco, recovering methane through manure treatment - these and other new technologies all have potential for Ontario agriculture, provided we take into account their positive and negative sidesby MURRAY BLACKIE
As a child my parents used to say: "Waste not, want not." They did not use terms like recycle, reuse or reduce; they just did it. To them, the three "Rs" were reading, writing and arithmetic. Well, now we have the three "Rs" of waste management (it used to be four with recovery).Having seen the difficulties we've experienced in sustaining recycling initiatives in the past, it's encouraging to see a surge of exciting and useful projects of this kind. Moreover, having lived through the so-called energy crisis of the 1970s, and with the more recent concerns about air quality, global warming and climate change, it is also satisfying to see biodiesel and ethanol production initiatives.
It seems that every time you look in a farm publication, you see some reference to biotechnology, waste recycling initiatives, manure treatment technologies or advances in genetics. For example, I recently watched a television report on attempts to produce spider silk from goat's milk and tobacco.
Technologies of this kind offer many benefits, both for individual farmers and the community as a whole. They include:
However, we should also be aware that these benefits may bring with them some perceived negative effects and we should ensure that their ramifications are considered.
- Better surface and groundwater quality protection with less damage from pathogens, organics, toxics and nutrient enrichment;
- Increased energy self-reliance and sustainability;
- Reduced use of resources;
- Air quality gains, both locally and globally;
- The potential to partition or more effectively capture beneficial nutrients;
- Less reliance on a large land base, which can be very expensive, if owned, and lead to significant management, land use conflict and water quality problems;
- Value-added potential from treatment by-products;
- Increased flexibility for operations of all sizes to develop a customized, multi-component management strategy best suited to their needs;
- On-site and community energy potential, self-reliance and sustainability;
- New uses for existing crops (spider silk from tobacco or ethanol production from corn);
- New byproducts from waste and partnerships in waste diversion.
Increased row crop acreage to feed the new production of biodiesel or ethanol may spread into areas formally not used widely for such crops. The potential for soil erosion and environmental impacts in sensitive watershed areas should be weighed into the equation. Nutrient and pesticide losses may require us, for example, to consider the need for buffers We must be careful not to repeat soil loss tragedies caused by intensive cropping practices in some parts of the province.
Many of these technologies may require formalized approvals from government agencies, such as the Ministry of the Environment. Apprehension over the need or such approvals has often lead in the past to people not pursuing environmentally beneficial and sound projects and we must see that this is not the case in future.
Many of these technologies will require monitoring, staffing, record keeping and other costs not a major part of more traditional approaches.
Agriculture is a fertile sector for such innovative approaches. But any new technology should be thoroughly assessed for its impact, both positive and negative. BF
Murray Blackie is a former agricultural specialist with the Ministry of the Environment and is now a consultant, expert witness and writer on agro-environmental issues.
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New safety measures for manure tankers on the way
Changes to liquid tanker design and more warning decals are in the works in response to the deaths of three farm workers in Wellington County in 2000by DON STONEMAN
This fall, Ontario will likely enact new regulations designed to protect liquid manure tanker operators from themselves.Derek Nelson, press secretary to Agriculture and Food Minister Helen Johns, says drafts of amendments to the Farm Implements Act "are in the approvals process." If all goes according to procedure, the amendments will be introduced when the legislature resume sitting in the fall.
The proposed regulations are in response to five of 15 recommendations from the Drayton inquest, which looked at the tragic deaths of three farm workers on the Flinkert family dairy farm in Wellington County on Aug. 15, 2000. The inquest recommended that:
The proposed new regulations will cover all of the above recommendations. In addition they state that a list of required decals is to be developed and must be applied to new and used spreaders by the dealer before they are sold.
- All operating liquid manure spreaders be retrofitted with semi-permanent bars and that all newly-built tankers have these bars as standard equipment on the top of the tank;
- External and internal ladders be removed from the tankers;
- Decals and warning signs pertaining to farm operations contain universal symbols that take into account language and literacy barriers (one of the dead at the Flinkert farm was Spanish-speaking and barely literate);
- Warning signs be located in such a way that repeated use of the tank does not obscure them;
- In addition to owner and parts manuals, manufacturers and dealers provide a safety manual covering all hazards including toxic gases.
The new regulations were developed in concert with manure tanker builders. Dennis Nuhn, owner of Nuhn Industries Ltd in Sebringville, says changes to manure tanks to make them safer will probably help. "If we design a machine that nobody has to go into, they probably won't."
Walter Grose isn't so sure. He owns Husky Farm Equipment Ltd. in Alma and says his machines have had bars on entrances to its spreaders since 1992. He says farmers think it important to go into a manure tank to clean it out, even though the dangers are known. Having the bars on the tanks means operators will have to get a wrench in order to remove the guard and this may make them "think again" about going inside.
Nuhn says new devices on the machinery aren't the only answer. "We can go so far in helping stop people from hurting themselves. Somewhere along the line, the pendulum has to swing back so that every individual has a bit of responsibility to make sure that they don't do something stupid. Manure gas can kill anybody."
Along with the recommendations on changes to liquid tanker design and more warning decals, the inquest jury also recommended that funding be increased to the Farm Safety Association (FSA) to enhance education and that commodity boards work with the FSA to develop and disseminate safety materials to members.
FSA co-ordinator Steve Zronik says provincial funding has been increased to $120,000 this year from $90,000, with the extra money aimed at liquid manure tank safety.
OMAF's Nelson says the FSA budget is close to $1 million, most of it from fees collected by theWorkplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIP) and passed on to the FSA. It is mandatory that all employees have workplace insurance coverage under the WSIB, even though they are exempted from the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
A couple of recommendations from the Drayton inquiry have disappeared from public sight. One was that farm operations with a confined space designation be equipped with special breathing apparatus to provide oxygen. At press time, there was no indication that this recommendation will be addressed.
Another recommendation was that the FSA be given the powers to go onto farms and ensure that safety regulations are being followed. There is no indication that this recommendation is being pursued. BF
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Northumberland County embroiled in tree-cutting dispute
Like many other regions across Ontario, the county moved to protect timberland from "high-graders" who took the best timber out. But Daniel Thomey of Port Hope says his rights are at stake and is prepared to defy the regulationsby DON STONEMAN
Imagine you were a beef farmer and you were restricted to giving 10 days notice before you sold an animal, and that you were restricted as to your farm's carrying capacity.That's how Port Hope farmer Daniel Thomey feels a tree-cutting bylaw, passed last year by Northumberland County, affects his ability to make a living cutting timber from his property.
He's going to cut trees on his 120-acre farm anyway and, if he is charged, he plans to take the bylaw to court, arguing that an almost 200-year old patent deed issued by Britain's King George III has precedence over bylaws enacted by current governments that restrict the use of his personal property.
Thomey has 55 acres of hardwood, 15 to 20 acres of mixed softwood and 5,500 maple taps, from which he sells syrup at Toronto's St. Lawrence Market. He found out about the bylaw from the local newspaper. "Ten days notice, three months in jail or a $20,000 fine. I cannot sell; I cannot barter or trade the timber off my land without their permission."
But Joe Banbury, Northumberland Stewardship Council chairman and a beef farmer and agro-forester in Brighton, says Thomey "has not been prevented from doing anything. He thinks he might be. He just resents the idea of more government and more control."
Thomey says the council and local Ministry of Natural Resources staff pushed the stewardship council to pass this bylaw. When the council sponsored a woodlot survey, he thought it was a good idea -- until it was used as ammunition in the fight to push for a bylaw. Thomey was one of the landowners surveyed and asserts that the questions were asked in bad faith because a restriction on cutting was never mentioned.
However, Banbury says the study "did the job...It was very, very clear that the vast majority of (woodlots) were just being raped."
Loggers known pejoratively as "high-graders" were taking out big hardwood trees for veneer logs, leaving firewood, pulp logs and other lower value wood behind to seed the remaining bush. High-grading is the equivalent of slaughtering the biggest and best pigs and using the runts as breeding stock, Banbury says.
"This area has gotten awful tired of the situation where somebody from the city...buys the farm because they like the house, then rape the bush to partially pay for it. The next thing they want to do is chop off a few severances and sell the whole thing. It's not a procedure that you enjoy watching very much."
Thomey counters that if the goal is to deal with rogue loggers, it should be done by licensing the logging industry rather than by taking over private lands.
"We offered to work with the county on this problem. We haven't heard a peep from them."
Banbury doubts that Thomey has much support, to which Thomey replies that most farmers don't make a living from their woodlot. "It hasn't hit the general farmer as much as someone like myself who makes a living from maple syrup."
Ken McGregor of Strathroy, who is secretary of the Ontario Maple Syrup Association, says its members haven't gotten riled up about the tree-cutting bylaw. However, Wade Knight, general manager of the Ontario Woodlot Association, says woodlot owners are divided over the question. He says that a survey conducted by the polling firm Environics last year revealed that roughly 50 per cent of landowners favoured tree-cutting bylaws, while the same number opposed them. "It's a very personal issue. Landowner rights come into it."
The way the provincial legislation is written, it's up to the individual municipality to design these bylaws and put them into place, Knight says.
Tree-cutting bylaws have been adopted by 26 of 52 counties and regions in Ontario, says Donald Craig, a forester with the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority, based in Strathroy. There are tree-cutting bylaws almost solidly across western Ontario, with the exception of Essex and Kent Counties. In eastern Ontario, Lanark County has had a tree-cutting bylaw for many years, adds Knight.
"I don't know what it would take to make Dan happy," Banbury says of the dispute, which he feels has turned personal. The Stewardship Council used to buy Thomey's maple syrup to give as gifts, but it no longer does so. "We decided it just isn't quite acceptable to put up with some of the personal attacks on individuals." BF
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