A report from researchers who found large swaths of old-growth trees in Algonquin Park — including a 408-year-old hemlock in a logging zone — will be taken into consideration for the next forestry management plan for the area, the Ontario government says.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, responding to a recent Star article about the discovery of the rare four-century-old tree in the popular park, said consultations will be a key part of the updated plan.

Justine Lewkowicz, a spokesperson for Minister John Yakabuski, said forest management plans are done every decade for the park located about three hours north of Toronto, and involve “a rigorous process which includes stakeholder, public and Indigenous community input and involvement, as well as consideration of the broader Algonquin Provincial Park Management Plan.”

Lewkowicz said the ministry “is committed to implementing a management approach that balances forest management activities and environmental protection.”

Last fall, the group Ancient Forest Exploration and Research found the old hemlock along with a number of trees more than 200 and 300 years old. Other old-growth areas have been identified in recent years as well.

Lewkowicz said the group's report and letter urging an end to logging in old-growth areas “have been shared with the Algonquin Park Forest Management Planning Team. The information shared will be considered during the development of the next Algonquin Park (forest management plan).”

The plan will also look to other policies on old-growth forests, and “provide direction on the extent of old growth that should be maintained over time,” she said, adding that “harvesting activities take place on approximately one per cent of the forested area of Algonquin Provincial Park in a given year.”

Mike Henry, a senior ecologist with the ancient forest group, said he’s unsure of the forestry authority’s position about “conserving unlogged old-growth forest in the utilization zone of the park, but that’s not surprising.

“We’ll also be also be sending a letter to the minister since this needs to be addressed at a higher level, possibly during the Algonquin Park management plan review.”

Henry said the doesn’t believe there’s any other location in eastern North America “that has as much unprotected old-growth forest as Algonquin Park. Not south of the boreal forest, anyway.”

Ancient Forest Exploration and Research is a non-profit, charitable educational organization. It found the ancient hemlock west of Cayuga Lake in Algonquin Park last fall, and has found numerous other pristine, old-growth forests there.

Of 10 trees they examined, three others were more than 300 years old, and another five were more than 200 years old.

“Based on mapping we’re pretty sure significant tracts of very old forest have also been logged in the past 10 years, or are currently being logged,” Henry has told the Star.

Peter Quinby, the research group’s founder who completed his doctorate at the University of Toronto studying habitat and vegetation in Algonquin, said old-growth forests store a lot of carbon and are crucial for biodiversity and climate.

In Algonquin Park, roughly 24,000 hectares of old-growth forests are believed to be in zones open to logging. Overall, 65 per cent of the sprawling park in cottage country is located in unprotected areas.

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The province’s former environmental commissioner, Gord Miller, said in a 2014 report that all commercial logging should cease in Algonquin — the only provincial park in Ontario where that’s allowed.

The Algonquin Forestry Authority’s updated management plan for the park will cover a decade, starting in 2020.

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