A move by the Alberta government to relax private lease restrictions on a Japanese-owned pulp mill to allow it to plant poplar trees will give Athabasca-area farmers an opportunity to diversify their crops, says a company spokesman.
But at least one environmental group is concerned that not enough safeguards have been built into the plan to prevent damage to farmland and existing trees.
The provincial cabinet approved a conditional exemption last week allowing Alberta Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac) to lease 25,000 hectares of privately owned farmland in order to grow a hardy strain of poplar tree to supply its kraft pulp mill 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
The company will now be able to sign 30-year renewable leases with local landowners. Under provincial land regulations, foreign companies are permitted to lease no more than 20 acres for a maximum of 20 years, without the option to renew.
Al-Pac, owned by Mitsubishi Corp. and Oji Paper Co., last year dropped plans to buy 12,000 hectares in northeastern Alberta after hitting roadblocks with local municipalities concerned over foreign ownership of local farmland.
But now the company says dozens of hopeful farmers are lined up hoping to lease their properties.
“We have a large number of farmers who have been on a waiting list, waiting for this exemption to take place. It provides a guaranteed source of income, and in today’s farming community, that can be pretty important to people,” says Trish Ritthaler, communications co-ordinator for Al-Pac.
“We’re out getting people signed up on their leases right now.”
But the Edmonton Friends of the North Environmental Society worries that existing trees may have to be cleared just to plant the new hybrid poplar, prized for its resistance to cold, drought and insects.
“It depends on what’s there at present – in other words, if it was farmland that has high density of forest on it, the removal on that will affect water tables and surface water,” says Lorraine Vetsch.
“If it’s breaking of new agricultural land, which involves clearing and planting, that’s not good news. But if it’s agricultural land that has already been cleared and is unproductive with other crops, then it is a good-news story.”
Terry Willock of Agriculture Food and Rural Development confirmed the lease will allow Al-Pac to take out trees if needed. “If a farmer has a good stand of poplar on his land right now, they can go in and harvest that and then replant,” she says. “Or they may be looking at some old pastureland that’s clear right now that they can plant.
“But they still have to live up to environmental regulations.”
Al-Pac’s Ritthaler says the company expects to harvest about 400,000 cubic metres of fibre from leased land over the next 25 years.
The province has allowed a total lease area of 25,000 hectares (about 250 square kilometres) of land in northeastern Alberta to grow poplars. About 1,000 trees will be planted per hectare.
The company has already planted poplars on 650 hectares of land it owns around the mill.
Under the exemption, the 30-year leases can be renewed for another 30 years if the renewal occurs before the end of the first term.
The company must lease a minimum of 80 acres on parcels of land considered lower-grade farmland as determined by the local municipality. Leases must be terminated if Al-Pac stops using the land for three continuous years, and the company will not qualify for any disaster relief if the trees are destroyed by natural causes.
Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for the Alberta Forest Products Association, says a few other companies have started to look at the potential for developing privately owned woodlands, as well as agri-forestry, which involves growing timber on lands where trees have never been planted.
“It’s something that a handful are considering and investigating. It’s not widespread,” he says.
An additional benefit, also touted by the government, is the potential for the sequestering of carbon dioxide, allowing producers to market carbon credits.
“Right now, our companies are devoted on their forest-management agreements with the provincial government in terms of ensuring the Crown land that we’re on is being managed in a sustainable and responsible way,” says Greenberg. “But the concept of afforestation is certainty being actively reviewed, as well as private woodlot activity.
“When you’re talking forestry, we’re talking planning cycles of 30 years and up to 60 or 80 years,” he adds. “It takes time, and we want to work in a co-operative way . . . to make sure everyone is comfortable with the direction we’re going.”
Lorraine Vetsch of Friends of the North adds the idea of using unproductive farmland to grow poplars could open up the market for alternatives to wood fibre as a source for pulp.
“We hope it allows farmers to explore other possibilities,” Vetsch says, “and to provide a future fibre source without having to go on Crown land and upset the balance in place in the forests right now.”
