A group dedicated to saving the Iroquois Falls forest – mostly around Nellie Lake – says it gets little tidbits every time it meets with the natural resources ministry. The co-chair says if the MNRF thinks the group will go away, it’s mistaken.
Tom Vockeroth says plans for clear cutting around the lake were deeply flawed – incomplete or incorrect. For instance, the company doing the planning for the ministry didn’t know there’s a Nellie Lake Road, and misidentified the type of trees.
“So now they’re not cutting the area sort of to the east of Big Nellie Lake,” Vockeroth notes. “There’s about 200 hectares there that they’re not cutting, which is a huge area, actually more than we thought we’d ever get.”
Vockeroth adds that there are so many failings in the process, his committee can’t let it go.
“We can’t say oh, we got what we want, we’re going to let everybody else go down the tubes, we’re going to let them cut to the road everywhere else. You guys are, this is out of control.”
Vockeroth calls it the fox running the hen house.
The forest committee also managed to save a 30-metre buffer along the snowmobile trail. Vockeroth quips that the local snowmobile club is called Jackpine, not the Clear Cut Snowmobile Club.
Listen to Bob McIntyre’s full, detailed interview with Tom Vockeroth:
