Funds for silviculture

Silvicuture - or tree planting and forest management - got a growth spurt this week in the central region.

The province announced $72,400 in funding under the 2009 Provincial Silviculture Program for site preparation activity in the district of Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans.

That activity included site preparation across 200 hectares of land was completed this month at Lemotte's Lake, southwest of Grand Falls-Windsor. The work was valued at $47,700. These sites had been harvested between 1999 and 2006. The work took about three weeks to complete and provided six weeks of employment.

As part of that funding, the province also conducted a 200-hectare controlled burn in early September in the Grindstone area near the headwaters of Mary March Brook. A controlled burn is a method used for site preparation prior to planting. The site was approximately 20 kilometres north of the community of Millertown in Forest Management District 12. That work was $24,700.

As part of that funding, the province also conducted a 200-hectare controlled burn in early September in the Grindstone area near the headwaters of Mary March Brook. A controlled burn is a method used for site preparation prior to planting. The site was approximately 20 kilometres north of the community of Millertown in Forest Management District 12. That work was $24,700.

The site preparations will allow for Natural Resources to move with the next stage of silviculture, which is to plant 1,000,000 tree seedlings from the Wooddale Provincial Tree Nursery. The seedlings are black spruce and white spruce. According to a spokesperson from the Department of Natural Resources, those seedlings will not be available to harvest until 2060 or later.

However, when they mature, these trees will be used for heating fuel, to make lumber and paper.

Susan Sullivan, MHA for Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans and Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment, said it was wonderful to see government taking initiative to maintain the continued growth of the province's forestry industry.

"Silviculture is always going to be an important piece of work that we do here in the district, because the forest industry will continue to be important," she said. "I'm particularly happy because we can see opportunities to put people back to work in the silviculture industry."

She added the province also sees the opportunity to preserve its forests and see to it that the industry itself is always going to be looked after down the road.

"No matter what we do in terms of industry support, silviculture always has to be an important part of it. We have to be careful to preserve what we have and we're not using the resources and walking away from it."