A South Kent councillor's motion to have Chatham-Kent staff outline some incentives to encourage the preservation of existing woodlots and to encourage the expansion of tree cover across the municipality has failed.
Ward 2 councillor Ryan Doyle's motion was rejected by a vote of 4-13.
Chatham-Kent's General Manager of Development Services Bruce McAllister told Council several provincial incentive programs have been around for years.
The municipality and Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority also have policies and incentives surrounding woodlots.
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Previous story below from October 30, 2023:
A South Kent councillor is taking steps to keep more woodlots from disappearing in the future.
Chatham-Kent's Ward 2 councillor Ryan Doyle will be introducing a motion at Chatham-Kent Council Monday night to have staff outline some incentives to encourage the preservation of existing woodlots and to encourage the expansion of tree cover across the municipality.
Council repealed a temporary bylaw on September 25, 2023 that banned the clear-cutting of woodlots.
Doyle told CK News Today he campaigned on the issue of preserving woodlots and wants to follow through with his promise, adding that multiple farmers have told him that not taxing their woodlots is enough of an incentive to prevent them from cutting down trees or at least think twice about it.
"My number one thing would be to not tax woodlots. If we don't want farmers to take down woodlots, morally we shouldn't tax them. I personally believe farmers have the right to do what they want on their land, the land is their business after all. If we don't want them to take down their woodlot, then we don't tax them. It just shows we're putting our money where our mouth is," said Doyle.
Councillor Doyle said a vast majority of local farmers want to keep their woodlots and hopes his proposed tax incentive is also enough for the big farm conglomerates to keep the woodlots if they buy out local operations.
"Ninety-nine per cent of those family farms want to keep their woodlots and have done good over the years and it is the big corporations that we're worried about. But to penalize all the family farms because of what the industrial ones might do if they were to buy them [family farms], I don't think that's fair either," Doyle said.
Doyle wants administration to prepare an updated incentives report for the March 4, 2024 Council meeting outlining potential incentive options.
He's also asking for public consultation regarding the various incentive options.
The Natural Heritage Committee of the Whole that sat during the previous term of Council received a report titled Public Consultation for Woodlot Preservation Options in March of 2022 that outlined a recommended process for additional public consultation. The report also outlined various ways that the education, incentive, and tools for regulating woodlot preservation might be configured, along with a recommended configuration for each woodlot preservation tool to use as a basis for the proposed public consultation.
