June 02, 2020

FOW engages with Armstrong Forest Planning
 
Recently FOW President Vern Fish was accepted as our representative to the Armstrong Forest Local Citizen Committee (LCC).  Board member and Thunder Bay resident Shawn Bell was accepted as our Alternate. They replace Phil Cotton who was appointed shortly before he passed. 
 
Volume 5 Canoe Routes.  There are many canoe routes in the Armstrong Forest which The Wabakimi Project improved and documented in FOW Maps Volume 5 as well as several major points of entry into Wabakimi Provincial Park.    Logging and road development in this Crown land forest will impact the area’s habitat and canoe routes. 
 
Vern attended his first meeting on May 27th. This was the LCC’s first online meeting, a change which greatly helps our involvement. The Armstrong Forest is currently revising the next ten-year Forest Management Plan (FMP).     ​Vern reported:
 
New Logging road. The dominant issue was the location of a road to haul logs out of the northwest corner of the Armstrong Forest. (See the Dalton Road Extension map. The logging company refers to the road as the Dalton Road Extension but the locals refer to it as the Big Lake Road.) Here's the full report in our June newsletter. We'll report further soon our questions to MNRF staff and their responses.