Harvest time for Bonfield’s red pine means cash for municipality

BONFIELD - It’s harvest time at Bonfield’s red pine plantation, which stands just north of the township’s landfill site in the North Bay area

Ann Carr, the municipality’s public works manager, explained that 475 trees are ready to become hydro poles, and the harvest should bring in an estimated $28,500 to municipal coffers.

Specifically, the plan is to place the funds into the public works’ operational budget. However, council will work out those details at a future meeting. Currently, any revenue stemming from the red pines finds it way to Bonfield’s reserve fund.

Not that all of that money will be tucked away, as it will cost the municipality $20 to harvest each tree, for a total cost of $9,500, Carr said. “We’ve never done a harvest” for poles, Carr explained, adding that the municipality has contracted out some maintenance for the plantation, and six years ago, some harvesting was done but not for hydro poles.

To be considered for a future as a hydro pole, a red pine must grow to between 42 and 46 feet tall. Shaw Lumber, based in Pembroke, will be coming in to “fall the trees, limb the trees, skin the trees, and haul them out,” Carr said. Once Shaw takes them back to Pembroke, they store the logs until they can sell them as poles.

Shaw has already marked the 475 trees, and in about “five or six years,” the plantation should be ready for another pole harvest, Carr explained.

David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.