The University of Guelph/New Liskeard Agricultural Research Station received $157,554 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. for a five-year research project that will evaluate the growth of different hybrid poplar varieties at the Emo site using paper mill organic waste as mulch.
And Kim-Jo Bliss, manager of the Emo research station, couldn’t be happier.
“It’s really good news,” she enthused. “The project’s been in the works but we had to be careful how far we went. Now we’ll probably have to hire a tree-planting crew.”
Northern Development and Mines minister Jim Wilson, who also chairs the NOHFC, made the funding announcement Friday while attending the annual meeting of the Northern Ontario Municipal Association.
Abitibi-Consolidated in Fort Frances and Voyageur Panel in Barwick also are partners in this experimental project.
The total cost of the project is $212,260.
“I’m very pleased with the money,” said John Roswell, head of northern research at the New Liskeard Agricultural Station. “There will also be contributions from Abitibi and Voyageur so it’s a partnership approach.
“It strengthens the industry that way, too.”
One of the key goals of the project is to develop a local source of feedstock for the forest products industry in Rainy River District, and to help sustain the major economic engines of the district’s rural communities.
“We know that in the Rainy River District, you’ve got two large economic engines from the mills but there’s a tightening supply in the feed sources,” Roswell said.
“One possibility for meeting that supply is to grow a specified breed called the hybrid poplar—a very fast-growing species,” he noted.
It takes 60 years to cultivate normal species for forestry purposes but the hybrid poplar could be harvested in just 20.
The poplar is cultivated very much the way an agriculture crop is. An area is regenerated after harvest. As well, weed control is very important because a hybrid poplar seedling has no roots.
“It requires time to develop roots so within the first four years, it really requires care and nurture like agriculture crops,” Roswell explained. “Also, the trees require virtually the same kind of conditions like good drainage.”
He called the study a win-win situation.
“The other side of this study is the potential to culture primary clarifier from the mill to act as a mulch,” Roswell said. “We’re going to take something currently going into the landfill and convert it to good use.
“Plus it’s a way to meet the demands for the forestry industry.”
Area farmers also might be able to take advantage of the study.
“We’re looking forward to having another cropping possibility for farmers,” Roswell said. “It’s like a forage crop and it has a longer rotation harvest.”