| Forestry
and Fishing: Economic Engines of the Miramichi
Visit
the Central New Brunswick Woodmen's
Museum
See a 1919 steam-powered sawmill
in action, and tour a replica
lumber camp, complete with cookhouse
and bunkhouse, at a 6-hectare
historical complex located in
Boisetown, New Brunswick, centre
of the Upper Miramichi lumbering
industry. The sprawling museum
traces the history of Miramichi
logging from its beginnings in
the early 1800's to the present
day, providing insight into the
lives of woodsmen and their families.
Displays include tools, machinery
and information about the Great
Fire of 1825. See the faces of
New Brunswick forestry in the
Registered Professional Foresters
Hall of Fame. The museum is open
daily from mid-May to the end
of September. The town of Boisetown,
named for founding forester, Thomas
Boies, is located on the Southwest
Miramichi River in the geographic
centre of New Brunswick.
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Like all contemporary Canadian communities
that once relied heavily on a handful of
resource industries, the communities of
the Miramichi are seeking to diversify their
local economies. But trees and Atlantic
salmon continue to be important job-producing
resources for the area, providing employment
in lumbering, sawmilling and pulp and paper
facilities, and sustaining hundreds of guiding,
outfitting, accommodation and hospitality-related
businesses.
Although 2 large companies - J.D. Irving
Ltd. and UPM-Kymmene-Miramichi Inc. - dominate
forestry operations in the Miramichi area,
there are over 5,000 private woodlot owners
in the region who derive at least part of
their income from forest products. (A high
level of private woodlot ownership is a
distinctive feature of New Brunswick forestry,
with 30% of the province's productive forests
in private hands.) Forestry jobs in the
Miramichi area stem from 2 Crown Licenses
granted by the government of New Brunswick
to UPM-Kymmene-Miramichi Inc., operating
in the northern areas of the Miramichi watershed
(Crown License No. 4), and J.D. Irving Ltd.,
operating in the area of the Southwest Miramichi
River (Crown License No. 6). In Nelson,
part of the City of Miramichi, UPM-Kymmene
is one of the community's major employers,
while J.D. Irving Ltd. is the largest employer
in the Boisetown - Doakvile - Upper Blackville
area. Almost 20% of the entire New Brunswick
forestry labour force is employed in the
Miramichi's Northumberland County.
While the Miramichi River system once supported
a thriving commercial Atlantic salmon fishery
and canning industry, guided sport angling
is now the backbone of the area's tourist
industry. Guiding and outfitting operations,
lodges and resorts, equipment and tackle
suppliers and other recreational angling-related
businesses contribute to a multi-million
dollar regional industry. Investment in
fly-fishing guiding and outfitting companies
can be high, with operators owning or leasing
private pools and valuable stretches of
waterway. Many fly-fishing guiding companies
are based in the Doaktown-Blackville area
on the Southwest Miramichi.
The New Brunswick
Forest Industry
Low
Impact Forestry: Steady and Sustainable
Some private woodlot owners in
the Miramichi region are adopting
an ecosystem-based, or "low
impact" approach to forestry
management. This approach seeks
to sustain the woodlots as viable
economic resources that can be
harvested - selectively and repeatedly
-about every 10 - 15 years, while
steadily increasing the amount
of wood available. Woodlot operators
are re-creating the tree species
mix and plant and wildlife diversity
of the original Acadian Forest,
leaving deadwood and "nurse
logs" to encourage nutrient
and energy cycles and provide
homes for insects, birds and wildlife.
Diversity and abundance are used
as natural defenses against parasites
and infestations, such as spruce
budworm, that can overtake single-species
forests; a natural mix of trees
attracts a wider variety of parasite-eating
songbirds, and fungi-spreading,
fertility-promoting flying squirrels.
Low-impact forestry relies on
low-impact harvesting equipment
that leaves the woodlot largely
undisturbed. |
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• The province of New Brunswick has
65,000 square kilometres of forest.
• About 2% of New Brunswick's forests
are harvested each year.
• New Brunswick productive forests
include: 48% Crown Land (provincially owned),
30% private woodlots, 21% industrial freehold,
1% federally owned.
• Most of New Brunswick's Crown Land
is divided into 10 large blocks and leased
to 6 large forestry companies.
• Forested tree species groups include
softwood, 46%, hardwood, 27% and mixedwood,
27%.
• Spruce species (red, white, black)
are the leading softwood forestry resource,
contributing 33% of the total New Brunswick
harvest, followed by balsam fir, 21.3%,
cedar, 7%, white pine, 2.2%, jack pine,
1.8%, larch, 1.1%, hemlock, 1% and red pine,
.3%.
• Red maple is the top hardwood resource,
contributing 8.2% of the total harvest,
followed by aspen, 6.7%, sugar maple, 5.5%,
white birch, 4.7%, yellow birch, 3.9%, and
beech, 2.4%.
• In 1996, New Brunswick produced $2.9
billion of forest products from 10 pulp
and paper mills and 80 sawmills.
• The New Brunswick forest industry
employs about 15,000 people directly, and
13,000 indirectly, creating just under $1
billion in annual wages and salaries. |
