Tourism, forestry sectors still butting heads over buffer zones

Agreeing to disagree.
That’s what came out of recent talks between the tourism and forestry sectors on so-called Resource Stewardship Agreements, which were discussed at length last Thursday at the annual spring meeting of the North Western Ontario Tourism Association in Morson.
Gary Beardsley, of the Northern Ontario Tourism Organization (NOTO), told delegates the parties have developed an agreement that is about 95 percent complete.
But the talks became hung up on what Paul Jewiss, representing the forestry industry here, called “doughnuts.”
No, not the kind found in bakeries. Rather, it refers to the area of the forest that would not be allowed to be harvested around tourist operations or lakes.
NWOTA past president Donna Hanson asked Beardsley about the size of the buffer zone. She had heard it would be 200 metres.
Beardsley replied that was one number tossed around but noted NOTO was pushing for 120 metres while the forestry industry wanted 30 metres.
Jewiss said the forestry people actually want some flexibility in the process. “Say you want a 500 metre buffer on a lake near your operation. We can agree to that as long as we can, say, leave only a 30 metre buffer on a part of the lake that is undeveloped.”
Jewiss also said they would like to see each “doughnut” set up on an individual basis and not be a blanket size across the region.
Another problem with the RSAs is there hasn’t been a concrete dispute resolution mechanism put in place.
“We have to do this in a way that we can both do business,” Jewiss remarked.