Tree clearing in Chatham-Kent has been temporarily halted as the municipality considers ways to improve tree coverage locally.
On Monday night, council approved a temporary bylaw prohibiting the clear cutting of woodlots within Chatham-Kent for 120 days.
Councillor Aaron Hall was behind the idea, citing the fact that Chatham-Kent currently has one of the lowest percentages of tree cover in all of Ontario and the municipality's previously identified goal to develop approaches to protect natural resources.
It's far from the first time that the possibility of prohibiting tree clearing has been discussed at a council meeting.
Hall's motion referenced a motion that was initially made by former Wallaceburg Councillor Sheldon Parsons in January 2013 to place an immediate moratorium on the clear cutting of forest and tree cover within Chatham-Kent pending the consideration of conservation bylaw.
At the time, Parsons motion was referred back to staff for more information. The following month, councillors opted to table the temporary bylaw until a woodlot conservation bylaw could come before council and after community consultation had taken place.
After getting a report with more information on the feasibility of implementing the temporary bylaw, Parsons brought it back to council for reconsideration in March 2013 where it was ultimately defeated in a 9-8 vote.
Council heard 21 deputations regarding about the issue at the beginning of the meeting.
Several local environmentalists from the CK Woodlot Preservation Group urged council to pause tree clearing in hopes that it would be the first step towards protecting local woodlots.
An online petition titled 'Save our CK Forest' had also been circulating and has collected over 2,200 signatures to date.
However, there were also multiple deputations speaking out against the bylaw and the impact it could have on local farmers and the local agriculture industry.
"This bylaw has been heavily promoted by the same small group as before with the goal of taking away private property rights for farm landowners without compensation... Chatham-Kent has some of the best and most diverse agricultural lands in the world," said Jay Cunningham, Kent Federation of Agriculture President. "If council decides to put a tree-cutting bylaw in place, they will greatly inhibit a farmer's ability to manage their land to the highest ability in order to remain current and profitable."
Councillor Mary Clare Latimer said while she was in agreement with the intent behind Hall's motion, she was concerned that prohibiting tree clearing could create another barrier for agricultural landowners.
"We are what we are - a rural, intensively agriculture-based municipality with a lot of drains and low forest cover, because we grow for not only our own community but we feed and grow the world," she said. "Our rural property owners have paid for and cared for their land, some for generations."
Councillor Anthony Ceccacci also said he was concerned about what the immediate introduction of the bylaw would mean for property owners who already had worked planned for the near future.
However, Director of Legal Service Dave Taylor explained that the bylaw didn't mean the end of tree cutting completely.
"This bylaw doesn't prohibit all tree cutting. It's speaking to clear cutting and that's defined under the bylaw as being about a quarter of an acre," he explained. "So taking a tree in here or there as it starts to come into a field or even removing a few trees for a drainage project wouldn't be captured by this bylaw."
According to Taylor, the temporary 120 day time period of the bylaw will act as a "pause" to allow time to complete necessary engagement on the issue.
The motion was ultimately approved 61 per cent to 39 per cent.
Hall's motion also included a few other items that were voted on separately. All of those were also approved, including directing municipal staff to:
- Consider an incentive program, with the goal of preserving woodlots in the community and providing landowners with tangible and flexible options for being included in the program
- Launch a full public consultation process with interested parties, including virtual meetings and opportunities for comment on the Let’s Talk Chatham-Kent portal
- Conduct an analysis of best practices for incentive programs and woodlot preservation across Ontario
- Revise and update, for council’s consideration, the current natural heritage policy
- Present to council all summaries, findings, analysis, comments, feedback, updated policies and bylaws in a report with recommendations, within 90 days of the motion being approved
"I'm confident that this new approach is a responsible way to start the conversation once again and the approach reflects what we learned from the 2013 discussions," said Hall. "This approach will allow our staff to gather the feedback and data especially while looking at the new incentive program... combined with the feedback from the public, this will provide council with some new options."
Chatham-Kent has taken several other steps to improve tree coverage over the last few years including committing to planting one million trees in four years and implementing an urban tree cover policy.