NDACT (North Dufferin Agriculture and Community Taskforce) is expected to press its demand for a stop-work order on tree cutting by the Highland Group, and to base that in large measure on evidence that Highland exceeded permitted cutting by .06 hectares (about 1/8th of an acre).

The alleged clear-cutting of a woodlot of 1.06 hectares on Highland's 2,000-hectare land holding in Melancthon, if proven accurate, would exceed the 1 hectare permitted in the county bylaw. Melancthon does not have a tree conservation bylaw. There is no bylaw related to areas of less than one hectare in Melancthon.

NDACT had submitted a list of 13 alleged violations. On inspection of all 13, Museum Curator Wayne Townsend is reporting "several significant discrepancies between the results of the inspections and the information provided by NDACT." Specifically, he says in his report, "in almost every case, the width of the roadways (through woodlots) reported by NDACT is higher than that found in the inspections; the woodland described in #9 was found to be two small areas which together are 0.58 ha in size and are so open that they may not meet the woodland definition in the by-law. This would have to be determined by an expert from the aerial photography, since the trees have been removed (and) the woodland described in #11 was found to be 1.06 ha in size, rather than 1.6 ha as reported by NDACT."

At Highland, Michael Daniher had read the report, noted the reference to discrepancies, and said "it seems to all come down to .06 ha of the overall farm." He said he wouldn't wish to prejudge but indicated he would not be “barking up the wrong tree” by pressing for a stop-work order.

Instead, he would be bringing forth several other demands.

Those demands might prove to be as volatile as asking for a discriminatory stop-work order.

Mr. Cosack said he would be asking the committee to force Highland to replant the fence rows it had removed, asking for a ruling that cutting a wide swath through a woodlot does not create two by an act of dissection, and asking that all future tree cutting permits and exemptions be posted in the same fashion as zoning changes.

He said that NDACT just wants to know specifically what Highland is planning "as the largest farming operation in Dufferin."