As the Ford government recklessly pursues red tape reduction and deregulates forestry to facilitate a doubling of logging in Ontario, Wildlands League, is releasing new evidence showing widespread deforestation due to clearcutting practices.
As a follow up to Wildlands’ Logging Scars study (Dec. 2019), which provided an in-depth analysis and measurement of the long-term impacts of roads and roadside footprints from 27 clearcut logging sites, the new supplement released on July 30, 2020 shows similar barren scars across 264 additional sites in the study area.
The satellite images provide additional evidence to support the finding that far from being the exception or limited, deforestation from logging scars is widespread and systemic.
These productive forest losses are a startling blind spot in forest management in Ontario with profound implications for climate, renewal of boreal caribou habitat (a threatened species) and long-term sustainable timber supply.
Wildlands League is also showcasing the imagery in a new public-friendly interactive google map that encourages more exploration of these public forests. We did this because we want the public to know what’s happening in our forests and to make it easy for the public to browse the logging scars for themselves.