The New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association is looking for an additional 12,000 hectares of Crown land from the government to help meet the demand for maple syrup.
New Brunswick is the third-largest producer of maple syrup in the world and currently produces from about 0.4 per cent of the productive forest land in the province, according to producer Marco Martin.
Martin, who also speaks on behalf of the N.B. Maple Syrup Association, said the increased land is needed and will be critical in continuing to produce maple syrup in New Brunswick.
However, the government has been slow to lease the land to the producers.
“Unfortunately, there have been a bunch of excuses that came up since the spring,” he said in an interview Monday. “The whole nine yards. Name the excuse, there is a bunch that came up. Today, we’re tired of listening to those excuses and we want action basically.”
He said the request for an additional 12,000 hectares is a small drop in the bucket of the productive forest land and wouldn’t have any impact on the forestry industry.
It has caused a bit of a sticky situation between the maple syrup producers and the organization representing the forestry industry.
Forest NB, which declined an interview with Global News on the subject, said in a statement it was “disappointing to see the New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association support a campaign that disparages existing forest product companies when they should be seeking opportunities to collaborate with industry to achieve mutually positive outcomes.”
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It said it was misinformation that the forestry industry was harvesting on land identified for maple syrup production.
“One of the more unfortunate narratives being propagated is that forest sector companies are harvesting the proposed forest areas identified as having potential maple sugar potential ahead of them being allotted to syrup producers,” Forest NB said in the statement.
“Ironically, this misinformation about the forest sector’s management of hardwood, and forests in general, is only serving to drive wedges where we should be working to find solutions.”
Forest NB said Crown licensed land is obligated to manage identified areas of high maple content according to the High Content Maple Special Management Zone Policy.
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Martin said that isn’t what this is about and the association only wants to co-exist with the forestry industry.
“We’re just asking for a very small share of what is the general forest today,” he said.
“We don’t have any issue with forest industry cutting wood, don’t get me wrong, we think, and we believe that the forest industry in New Brunswick is a crucial part of this economy. However, we do believe there is room for both the two players in the game, in the province on Crown lands.”
He said he couldn’t stress that point enough, that there is room for both industries to get what they need from New Brunswick forests.
The Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development said in an email statement that along with the Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries it “continues to be committed to working closely with the New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association and other producers and processors on growing exports from sugary businesses on both Crown and private land through various programs.”
It said it has received an expansion plan, and it is evaluating it against all the other land uses that are possible.
“We are working to advance this file, which will include consultation with First Nations and further discussion with industry.”
There is no word in the statement on when the expansion could be granted to the association.
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