Needed: a good dose of common sense

MOST FARMLAND IN ONTARIO was created a century or more ago by the clearing of virgin forest. Some of the ancient woodlots we see today are those that were left there by the pioneers, identifiable each spring by the presence of triliums. Others were replanted a long time ago by farmers who saw hardwood as a good crop.

The practice of removing trees to make way for farms was therefore established a half-dozen or more generations ago.

Now, given the importance of trees to the environment and the ecology, the question has arisen in Dufferin of whether the practice is still acceptable.

In our opinion, the issue should be considered with a good measure of common sense. Woodlots that stand in the way of efficient agricultural practices should be removed, just as they were by the pioneers.

But the importance of the woodlots should not be disregarded. Those that are removed in the interests of modern farming must be replaced by similar forest tracts where they cause minimal interference with agriculture and, ideally, where they would serve some other purpose beyond that of the environment.

Here in Dufferin, it is unfortunate that county council did not have the foresight to take agriculture into consideration when drafting its current forest conservation bylaw.

That said, we applaud the council for its decision to amend the bylaw. We would hope that explicit conditions would be placed on removal of woodlots for any reason whatsoever, such that there would be no future disagreements among neighbours.

The current divisive nature of the issue has been amply demonstrated by the recent action of the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce (NDACT) in accusing The Highland Companies of violating the bylaw and suggesting that as a consequence it should face hefty fines.

The evidence seems to show that most of the clear-cutting was designed to improve efficiency by linking existing potato fields.

As we see it, what's needed is a bylaw that requires the long-run protection of woodlots by requiring property owners of all kinds to replace any live trees removed, even if it means buying land elsewhere in the municipality to establish a new woodlot.

Failure to comply with such a requirement would lead to the County billing the landowner for the cost of expanding our county forests.