How will licensing affect the ability of private woodlot owners to manage their own land?
This is a many-faceted question but, essentially, private woodlot owners have ownership of the resource on their land and can establish whatever management objectives are desired. Licensing does not prevent individual woodlot owners from practicing forestry on their own land, and whether or not their objectives are appropriate will be governed by other laws and regulations, i.e., provincial, municipal, etc., not by Bill 110. Woodlot owner rights are a specific exemption in the new Act to ensure that they will not be infringed upon. However, if a woodlot owner requests an R.P.F. to have input into the development of management prescriptions, etc.; the R.P.F. would be required to evaluate the objectives for technical appropriateness and decline to participate if they are in conflict with accepted standards of practice or the OPFA’s Code of Ethics. Having accepted the project and the owner’s objectives, an R.P.F. must carry them out within the parameters of professional ethics and standar
