Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Val Rita-Harty Proposed Site 2

Northern Livestock Pilot - Val Rita-Harty Site 2

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 3,198 acres (approx. 1,294 Ha).

Forest Management Unit: Gordon Cosens

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

Roads: There are three roads that provide access to the site. Concession Road 1 & 18 provides access to the most north-eastern perimeter of the site. Harty Pit Road provides access to the centre of the site from the northern side of the site. This is not a year-round maintained road. Concession Road 14 & 15 provides access to the southeastern area of the site. 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 several streams, wetland areas and lakes within the site. Lakes and wetlands appear to be fairly limited in area.

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 contains a pipeline right of way and telecommunication line
• A snowmobile trail crosses the application area
• The application area contains moose aquatic feeding areas

Crown Land Use Policies:

There are three Crown land use policies that cover Val Rita-Harty Site 2, G1736, "Kapuskasing Resource Extraction Area" G1737, "Highway Number 11 Corridor" and G1732, "Fred Flatt Aggregate Area." 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.
G1732, "Fred Flatt Aggregate Area"	Activity: Crown Land Disposition, Agriculture Permitted: Yes Guidelines: Farm related structural development will be discouraged. Disposition of Crown land for agricultural purposes will only be permitted on depleted aggregate areas or where aggregate potential has been disproved.