ONTARIO IMPLEMENTS NEW FOREST FIRE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
BACKGROUNDER - A new Forest Fire Management Strategy was developed, in part, as a response to an extensive land use planning exercise in the mid-1990s. The exercise focused on providing for a stable social and business environment, promoting and protecting natural heritage, supporting resource-based tourism and supporting increased investment in forest management.
As a result, the new fire management strategy is based on a number of strategic objectives, including the following:
* ensuring public safety;
* protecting wood supply;
* promoting fire's role in the ecosystem;
* enhancing partnerships and agreements;
* promoting public education and prevention; and
* managing fire response and associated business matters.
Under the new strategy, protection will be increased for several forest management areas north of Highway 11. The strategy provides direction on how to manage fire to protect public safety, property and natural resources, while allowing flexibility to let fire play a natural role in ecosystems.
It better recognizes the part that fire plays on Ontario's landscape, and reflects resource management and land use objectives. In addition, it allows for a greater role for natural and prescribed fire within larger parks and protected areas, as well as allowing the use of fire to meet silvicultural and hazard reduction objectives. Examples of this include modified fire suppression under controlled conditions in low risk areas and prescribed burns in blowdown areas.
The new strategy is the product of a consultation process that involved the public, interest groups, First Nations, partners and major stakeholders. The new strategy replaces the previous strategies developed in the 1980s, and calls for the increased use of sophisticated ways to steer and control fires.
Press Release: "ONTARIO IMPLEMENTS NEW FOREST FIRE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY.
Contact:
Jonathan Wilkinson
Ministry of Natural Resources
(705) 945-6671
