Atlantic Forestry May 2022

Unwelcome changes, necessary adaptations

by David Palmer
Serious troubles have been foisted upon the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners by the provincial Forest Products Commission (FPC). A major overnight change to the federation’s membership, funding, and governance structure was necessitated in October 2021, when the FPC passed Order No. 2021-527, prohibiting the seven provincial forest products marketing boards from being members of the federation or contributing funds to the group. It gave the boards not much more than 30 days to comply. This draconian measure, which many perceive to be retaliation for criticism, left the federation without funding or members, and left the marketing boards without a provincial body to represent them.  

Whatever problems there may have been, the FPC should not have the authority to eviscerate an organization, ending relationships that have been in place for decades, without any party having recourse to an appeal, review, or hearing. The deadline was ridiculously short, allowing no time for transitioning to a new model. One wonders what the end game is. If the intention was to shut off communication and criticism coming from the federation, and deprive the boards of a collective voice, then this order appears to have achieved its objective. The government should undertake a review of the decision, ensure much greater transparency in future decision-making, and yank hard on the FPC’s reins. Perhaps it is time to investigate the FPC and its bizarre workings.

Now that the initial shock is wearing off, the federation is trying to re-invent itself and chart a path forward. To that end, it is revising its bylaws to reflect the new strictures, electing directors, adopting a vision document, and starting a membership drive. The challenge will be to engage woodlot owners who have only a passing awareness of what the federation is and what it does. There are thousands of woodlot owners who have used marketing board services over the last three or four decades, but not all that many who have had direct dealings with the federation. Most know that the organization exists, and that it somehow represents them, but probably couldn’t say much more than that. If just 10 percent of the 41,000 woodlot owners in the province became paying members, that would generate sufficient revenue to keep the federation viable and strong, and enable it to expand services. But that’s a tall order. Just ask any NGO that has attempted a membership drive; they’ll tell you how hard it is, especially if the benefits of membership are somewhat intangible.   

The federation’s money worries may be alleviated with the establishment of a sustainability fund for private woodlots, as advocated by the government. It would, ostensibly, derive from a new levy on Crown wood (although that has not been finalized), potentially financing re-instatement of Forest Extension – a wing of DNR that was discontinued in the mid-’90s. In its heyday, Forest Extension put on field days, conducted one-on-one woodlot site visits, and provided funding assistance for boundary line re-establishment and woodlot roads and trails. After the demise of Forest Extension, the federation joined forces with the provincial Maple Syrup Association and the Christmas Tree Growers Association to establish INFOR, an organization that backfilled the woodlot information gap for a few years. Today, many New Brunswick woodlot owners have only a basic knowledge of what is on their land and how to manage it to optimize their objectives. While timber production is still an important priority for many, others place a higher value on conservation, recreation, and habitat protection. Increasingly, they are interested in creating a forest that is climate resilient. 

Whether the new employees of Forest Extension will be housed under the federation or the marketing board umbrella, or under the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, or under some hybrid system, they will have to command a broad knowledge set, ranging from practical market information to more esoteric matters such as aesthetics, forest bathing, and climate change considerations.

NB POWER SOLDIERS ON

Another outfit faced with a big operational challenge is NB Power. Any hope of extending the life of the utility’s Belledune coal-burning plant has been dashed. The federal government’s plan to shutter all coal-burning power plants in the country by 2030 is part of our commitment to the Paris Agreement. Belledune, with a generating capacity of 467 MW, is Atlantic Canada’s heaviest-emitting power plant, at 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalence, and among all emitters it is second only to the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John. Built in 1993, and designed to operate until 2040, it provides almost 25 percent of the province’s base load. 

The plants that make up the balance are Point Lepreau (660 MW) and Mactaquac and associated plants (889 MW), for total of approximately 2,000 MW, which is very close to electrical demand in the non-heating season. With another 355 MW of wind capacity, as well as 100 MW of biomass, there is enough juice in the system to handle most of the demand in the balmier period from April to October. The problem comes in the winter, especially the latter part of January, when peak demand can spike to more than 3,000 MW, since electric baseboards still constitute the preponderance of our residential heating systems. When that happens, NB Power must fire up its expensive fossil fuel plants such as Coleson Cove (972 MW) and Bayside (277 MW). Otherwise, New Brunswickers would freeze in the dark.

Advocates of wood heat (myself included) have argued that wide-scale adoption of clean-burning technology (as in some European countries like Austria and Sweden) would solve two problems. First, it would reduce the need for expensive back-up power systems by shaving peak demand; and second, it would provide a much-needed market for low-grade wood, to the benefit of woodlot owners whose land is brimming with unmerchantable fibre.  

I’ve always felt that there was about as much attention paid to this concept, at the provincial level, as to the soap-box orators of Piccadilly Square. Imagine my shock, then, upon opening January’s power bill and finding therein a plea to burn more wood! The note went on to say that, given the forecast for the next few days, the utility expected demand to peak at about 3,200 MW, putting a great strain on the system, and I could help to buffer that demand by throwing a few more sticks on the fire. 

As for the Belledune conundrum, officials are scrambling to answer the question of where the replacement energy will come from. The feds are touting the so-called Atlantic Loop – a regional generation and transmission system that would have excess hydro power wheeled from Quebec and Labrador to the Atlantic provinces, to replace coal power. In the meantime, NB Power is exploring other options, including hydrogen fuel, natural gas, and biomass – particularly pellets, which are currently shipped from the Port of Belledune to overseas customers, and could theoretically be diverted to the Belledune plant. However, pellet suppliers likely have long-term supply contracts with existing customers, like the massive Drax biomass plant in the U.K., and there would be severe penalties for reneging. Pellet exports from the province add up to about 250,000 tonnes annually, which sounds like a lot, but it’s actually a paltry amount in the context of thermal power plants, which are notoriously inefficient, guzzling 5,000-15,000 tonnes of fuel annually for every megawatt produced. A 450 MW plant would need more than two million tonnes of pellets for continuous year-round operation.  

A better idea – and a sounder investment – would be for the province to get serious about district heating systems, like those in Fredericton and Charlottetown. Burning wood directly for heat, instead of using it to generate electricity, increases energy conversion efficiency from about 30 percent to 80 percent. In 2010 I visited a rural village in a wooded area of southeast Austria, near the Hungarian border, where the entire community was heated by a boiler that burned chips from woodlots owned by local residents. The wood was stored on site for a year to dry (improving combustion efficiency), then chipped as required. Solar panels lined the roof of the building, to supply domestic hot water once the heating season had ended, and there was a small oil boiler that could be fired up easily to supply shoulder-season heating needs. The banks were only too happy to finance installation of the distribution system, and amortize it over a lengthy period.