North of Terrace Bay, the waters of Kenogami River, Long Lake and the Aguasabon River flow toward Lake Superior, a natural route for thousands of trees heading to sawmills in the days before wood-laden trucks thundered down asphalt highways.
Long Lake #58 First Nation economic development officer John O’Nabigon says the logs left behind under water present a new economic direction and the potential for jobs in underwater logging.
“It’s been estimated that the lumber industry routinely lost about seven per cent of the logs it transported,” says O’Nabigon. “If you consider how many logs were transported over the years, that gives you an idea how much timber is sitting down there.”
The logs have been sitting undisturbed for numerous years and remain relatively intact, says O’Nabigon.
“This could be considered more of a waste of resources, so we decided there could be some value in it,” says O’Nabigon. “We decided to look at the potential economic opportunities in this.”
A pre-feasibility study and pilot project was undertaken in 2001-02, funded under the First Nations Forestry Program of the Forestry Service of Canada. Among items addressed in the project included soundings of the bottom of the waterway to find out how many logs were at the bottom and also bringing up some of the logs to assess their condition and what their possible uses could be.
A floating boom that can reach up to 40 feet below the surface will be used to remove the logs, which are then placed on a barge.
When the barge is filled, it will then be transported to the Kimberly-Clark paper mill in Terrace Bay.
It has been determined that about 51,000 cords of pulpwood are submerged in the waterway.
Recently, FedNor announced an additional $20,700 to update the pre-feasibility study, as well as the preparation of a feasibility study and business plan for the sunken logs. Extraction of the logs is expected to begin in May.
“We believe we have about 20 years worth of wood supply for us to utilize, but that depends on how aggressively we extract it,” says O’Nabigon. He adds there are some environmental considerations, such as disturbance of fish spawning habitat that have to be taken into account, as well as long-term development of the industry.
“One of the biggest hurdles we had was demonstrating there would not be any negative impact to the environment,” he says. “The pilot project determined the operational methods we needed to adopt to make that happen and come up with new ideas for extracting the wood safely with concern for spawning habitat.”
He estimates the initiative could employ about 12 people, but they are considering other value-added applications that could provide other opportunities.
“The impact of this is that it will enhance the capability of this First Nation community by creating skills and knowledge for this industry, as well as providing employment and revenue which will then be reinvested into the project,” he says.
“There is a whole industry that could be spun off this that would provide employment for many people in our community,” he says. “That is the heritage of what has been left behind.”
