Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Val Rita-Harty Proposed Site 1

Northern Livestock Pilot - Val Rita-Harty Site 1

Project Location and Site Description

District: Cochrane

Municipality: Val Rita-Harty

Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) Administrative Region: Northeast Region, Hearst District

Size of Proposed Pilot Site:

The total proposed pilot site is approximately 1,993 acres (approx. 806 Ha).

Forest Management Unit: Gordon Cosens

Sustainable Forestry Licence Holder: The current Sustainable Forestry Licence (SFL) holder is Rayonier Advanced Materials.

Roads: There is one road that provides access to the site at its southwest perimeter. The name of the road is unknown. There appear to be some previously used, internal access roads. These may have been used to access the site for forest harvest and/or planting.

Watersheds: The site is within the tertiary watershed of Lower Kapuskasing and the secondary watershed of Missinaibi-Mattagami.

Waterbodies: There are three streams, two wetland areas and two lakes on the site. Lakes and wetlands appear to be limited in size.

Agricultural Capability: The site is comprised largely of agricultural land suitable for livestock farming. Part of the site is comprised of organic soils, which are not suitable for livestock farming.

Additional Site Information:

• The application area includes two moose aquatic feeding areas
• The application area contains 3 forest research plots

Crown Land Use Policies:

Crown Land Use Policy G1736, "Kapuskasing Resource Extraction Area" covers the majority of Val Rita-Harty Site 1. Crown Land Use Policy G1737, "Highway Number 11 Corridor" covers a limited amount of Val Rita-Harty Site 1 at the southwest area of the site. OMAFRA has submitted a request for review and amendment as necessary, of existing Crown land use policies to allow for agriculture to occur as a permitted use on proposed Crown land Pilot sites.

The table below provides an overview of current Crown Land Use Polices regarding agriculture for the proposed pilot site.

Crown Land Use Policy	Policy Details
G1736, "Kapuskasing Resource Extraction Area"	Activity: Crown Land Disposition, Agriculture Permitted: No Guidelines: Crown land will be disposed of in this area only to facilitate expansion of existing adjacent farms.
G1737, "Highway Number 11 Corridor"	Activity: Crown Land Disposition, Agriculture Permitted: Yes Guidelines: This Ministry will permit the disposition of approximately 1,000 hectares of previously cleared Crown agricultural lands for agricultural purposes. In addition, this Ministry will support agricultural expansion into significant amounts of previously cleared private land which are currently not in production.