June - July 2001 - Logging and Sawmilling Journal -

The Prince Albert Model Forest partnership is a nursery for more than just good science-it's a model for stakeholder consultation.

Adam Pidwerbeski (top photo, with map) is an interpreter for Prince Albert Model Forest partner Parks Canada, and works with many of the tour groups visiting the model forest.

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Howard Walker (above) is an aboriginal elder who leads field trips and shares First Nations perspectives, traditions, history and values with visitors to the Model Forest.

The model forest partnership is playing an integral role in a provincial forest practices and land management monitoring task force.

Much of the momentum that has fuelled both the redistribution of forestland in Saskatchewan and changes to the province's forest laws is rooted in projects such as the successful Prince Albert Model Forest partnership. Had the partnership failed, it is highly unlikely that the province's forest industry would be experiencing the same degree of development that is now under way.

The philosophy behind redistribution of Crown forest in Saskatchewan includes a high degree of aboriginal involvement in any new forest industry endeavours-and the model forest partnership has a high degree of aboriginal participation. Established nine years ago, the Prince Albert Model Forest consists of 367,000 hectares of mixed plains boreal forestland 70 kilometres north of Prince Albert.

Administrative board members come from 10 highly diverse forest stakeholder groups and include four First Nations organizations and bands, the Canadian Forest Service, the Canadian Institute of Forestry - Saskatchewan Section, the Prince Albert National Park, the province of Saskatchewan's Environment and Resource Management Department, the Resort Village of Candle Lake, and Weyerhaeuser Canada.

The organization is two-thirds funded by the Canadian Forest Service. Model forest programs and projects are entirely driven by the partnership. Discussion and decision making revolves around a common vision and a set of defined values and objectives. Consensus must be complete among board members before any action is taken. The board depends upon the information provided by three working groups: communications and knowledge exchange, integrated resource management and ecosystem health/local level indicators.

The model forest area includes a number of First Nations communities, so their participation was critical. "There is nothing that replaces participation for knowing how people feel about things and what is important to them," says model forest general manager Keith Chaytor. "So if you want to know what people on the street think, ask them. And if you want to do work that's meaningful to the people of the area, then you've got to include the people in the area."

Many commercial, subsistence, and educational activities occur throughout the model forest. A significant portion of the area is an active part of Weyerhaeuser Canada's Forest Management Licence Agreement. Additional forest products are manufactured from fibre acquired from land belonging to the Montreal Lake and La Ronge Indian Bands. Protected areas and recreational use occur in Prince Albert National Park and Candle Lake Provincial Park.

There are a number of examples where projects administered by the model forest partnership have benefited the forest industry. For example, model forest researchers conducted a study, at the urging of industry, on forest machinery compaction in cutblocks as well as decompaction of roads and landings. Weyerhaeuser covered the cost of operating the machinery while a partnership researcher reviewed the findings and presented his recommendations.

Those suggestions have changed how Weyerhaeuser approaches its harvesting operations. Plus, the research conducted within the partnership is also available to other forest companies and the general public. The partnership's research into sustainable integrated resource management-as well as the experience of stakeholder cooperation -was a strong influence in the construction of the $22.5 million Wapawekka sawmill in Prince Albert.

Operating as a partnership between Weyerhaeuser, the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, the Montreal Lake Cree Nation and The Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, the sawmill uses small log technology to manufacture lumber from wood that previously had been chipped for pulp. "That mill makes a whole lot of sense," says Chaytor, "and they've managed to supply the mill without increasing the annual allowable cut. The partnership spawns these sort of things." While not directly related to forestry- but of paramount importance to other partnership stakeholders-is the elk re-establishment project.

The partnership put the plan into action because the project was obviously on the wish list for a number of area stakeholders. Over 100 elk were relocated from Elk Island National Park in Alberta and released back into an area of the model forest where there once had been an elk population. There are now over 12 partners involved in that project alone. The model forest partnership also hosts day-long guided tours for children seven years and older.

One tour features a working forest environment and demonstrates commonly used silvicultural techniques. Another features an interpreter explaining the interactions between various animals, plants, and physical/chemical components of the boreal forest environment. A second part of that tour features a First Nations Elder who explains the traditional relationship of the Woodland Cree people with the environment.

More recently, the model forest partnership is playing an integral role in a provincial forest practices and land management monitoring task force, which includes all forest industries in the province. "We're trying to assist in testing protocols that answer to that provincial task force," says Chaytor. "We have done a fair bit of protocol testing. Our program is a small version parallel, so we are a good place to try things out."

They have also developed the template for involving early consultation with stakeholders during the integrated land use management planning process, which is now being implemented across the province. Chaytor says their particular broad-based approach to consultation is part of the unique nature of the Prince Albert Model Forest partnership.

The model of early participation and consensus decision making has served the partnership well. "That was not the norm 10 or 15 years ago where someone wrote up a plan then took it to the community and said, 'here it is. Don't you like it?'" says Chaytor. "Early consultation is the key, because often the questions that we are working to answer are questions that we are asked by the people."

Projects are not always limited to the geographic boundaries of the model forest. For example, the partnership currently has a riparian project under way as a result of the anticipated impact of more merchantable wood harvesting in the province. "We don't have a riparian area that has merchantable wood on it," says Chaytor. "So we're operating in another location where the forest industry will be harvesting. We do work outside our area."

The process of early consultation and consensus is also being used in other Weyerhaeuser operations, particularly on environmentally sensitive Crown land within the company's Grande Prairie, Alberta Forest Management Area.

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