Ontario horticultural industry wants to study wildlife damage to trees and crops

Thursday, May 24, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

The Ontario horticultural industry wants to know how much and what kind of damage wildlife is doing to trees and crops across the province.

That’s why the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association applied to the Agriculture-Wildlife Conflict Working Group to fund a study identifying wildlife damage and develop a best management practices document for farmers on prevention.

Art Smith, association CEO, says when wildlife kill livestock that’s pretty easy to identify. It’s much harder to spot injury to crops “but nonetheless damage is there and it’s very, very significant.”

Smith says they’ll start the study once they find out whether or not they get funding for it.

Ontario agriculture ministry spokesperson Susan Murray says by email the association’s proposal was submitted late last year and is still before the working group. A decision on this year’s projects will be made soon.

Money to fund projects comes from the ministry’s Ontario Wildlife Damage Compensation program introduced last June. As part of that program the ministry committed up to $50,000 a year for industry-led projects to help better understand how to prevent agriculture-wildlife conflicts.

The working group monitors the province’s agriculture-wildlife conflict strategy. It is made up of representatives from commodity organizations, general farm groups, the agriculture and natural resources ministries, municipalities, Agricorp, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, the Rural Ontario Municipal Association, and the Ontario Fur Managers Federation.

The ministry decides which projects get funded while the working group makes recommendations on the proposals. BF