Holyrood to take another crack at wood cutting policy

By Craig Westcott / July 7, 2023

Some people in Holyrood are getting the wrong idea about the Town’s proposed wood cutting policy, say members of council.

Infrastructure and public works committee chairman Steve Windsor said council will revise and reissue the policy after getting feedback from residents. The goal will be to improve the language to make the policy clearer, he indicated.

Windsor’s committee announced some months ago that a policy was in the works to allow residents a chance to cut firewood on Town-owned land that was slated for development. The idea was that the policy would benefit the Town by reducing its land clearing costs, and benefit residents who would like to harvest firewood close to home. The plan was to hold a lottery that residents could enter for a chance to cut specific amounts of wood from land that was about to be cleared anyway to make way for town developments.

But it looks like some people have gotten the wrong idea of what the Town has in mind, perhaps because the Town plans to include, as part of the overall policy, a permit to regulate the clearcutting of privately owned land.

“The intent of the policy is not to charge someone a fee to get a permit to knock down some trees on their land,” Windsor said. “No, we’re not going to charge a $50 permit to knock down trees on your (own) land.”

But Windsor said there is a permit required, and a development department process to follow, for anyone looking to clearcut land in Holyrood.

“Residents have complained about unsightly clear-cut lots that no one does anything with,” he said. “So, it’s important that the Town has oversight around that.”

Mayor Gary Goobie said the Town is not “out dipping into people’s pockets” to get a $50 fee.

“If you’ve got land on the back of your house – and a lot of people have woodstoves and like to stock up for the winter and they go behind and they’ve probably got acres and acres of land and they want to cut a few trees – fair game,” said the mayor. “The purpose of the permit, and I think this needs to be clarified, it’s not that the Town is out to try to police what’s going on. It’s a matter of monitoring the activity to ensure that the permit holder is in compliance with what he or she said they were going to do… So, the purpose of the permit is no different than getting a permit to burn some material in your back yard to ensure it’s compliant with the regulations, and that if there’s any issues with neighbours, or whatever, that we know that there’s a permit there and the fire chief and the fire department monitors the activity until the project is finished.”